Legends of the Hollow
by Empirialtank
Summary: The world can change in a single choice or if we wait a single moment. What if Ichigo had hesitated when claiming his Shinigami Powers as his body transformed into a Hollow? Will Rukai still be Rescued? Will Aizen be stopped? Will Ichigo ever be the same?
1. Chapter 1 Death of Strawberry

_Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any characters contained herein. I will not and cannot use this fan fiction to make a profit and if through the intervention of god I ever did I would insure that the owners of Bleach and its distributors in the US would receive all the profits. Everyone reading this story should support the official release of Bleach by buying the manga and anime DVDs. _

_Note 1: I will finish Legends of the Academy. Eventually._

Chapter 1: Death of Strawberry.

The rain was cold and merciless. Pounding and constant it beat down on the boy like thousands of tiny fists endlessly reminding him of just how great he had failed. It drove him into the ground and held him down despite all of his efforts to rise up. The rain struck him furiously and washed away his blood. Around him his blood was thick and almost glorious like some velvet blanket that he could rest on. But even a few inches beyond his broken body the rain swept his blood away as if the world refused to allow even his death to have any significance.

The boy punched the ground and pushed against it desperate to pull his body up, desperate to see her one last time. His strength was draining faster than his blood, he could barely even lift his head up, but he saw her. He saw the girl who had changed his entire life in a single night. He saw the girl who had saved his life at the cost of her own. He saw the girl he could not save. He saw the girl who would now die because of him. He couldn't take it. As she passed through the doors that led to her utter destruction his head dropped. As the doors closed he passed out in the freezing rain.

He awoke, and that surprised him. He didn't expect to ever wake up again. He certainly didn't expect to wake up in a surprising warm bed. He couldn't feel any pain coming from his chest and he didn't smell the sticky iron scent of his blood so he probably wasn't in danger of dying any time soon. He risked opening his eyes. He immediately regretted it because there was a very large man lying on top of him.

"Whaaaaaaa!" The boy cried out as he threw the man off of him with a judo move. He was surprised that nothing hurt and all of his strength seemed to have returned.

"Oh so you are awake Kurosaki Ichigo. This is all very good. I will inform the Shop Keeper immediately." The man said after he got back up. And then he opened the door and revealed a tall strange looking man standing behind it. He wore a green coat that seemed much too large for him along with a wide brimmed hat and a pair of sandals. He also carried a cane behind him where it couldn't possibly do any good.

"I remember you." Ichigo said, "You're the strange shop keeper that Rukia went to for help from time to time. Hat and Sandals man."

"Correct. You can call me Urahara. How is Rukia?" The shop keeper asked.

Ichigo couldn't respond. His wounds were fine but his chest still hurt terribly because of her name. He looked away to avoid the question.

"So they took her back to Soul Society." Urahara surmised. "If she stays there she will be executed."

Ichigo smashed to wall nearby him. Every fiber of his being tensed up as his eyes closed. He spoke briefly, "I know."

"Would you like to rescue her?" Urahara asked almost casually as if her life was some trivial matter. Ichigo looked at him like the world had just shattered, he was utterly dumbfounded.

"I have a way to get to Soul Society you know." Urahara said as if it was an interesting topic that had just come up, "If you want I could send you there to rescue her."

Ichigo leapt up in an instant. Everything had changed about him. He was no longer so tense or depressed. He radiated readiness.

"What are we waiting for then?" He exclaimed as he leapt forward but stopped dead in his tracks when Urahara put his cane to his chest. For some reason Ichigo felt that this cane had to be taken very seriously.

"Soul Society is filled with many powerful warriors. If you go there as you are now, you will die and you wouldn't do Rukia any good at all. But I can make you strong enough to save her if you want to."

Ichigo silently nodded to Urahara. He resolve was visible; he was going to save Rukia at any costs necessary.

"For now," Urahara continued, "Go home. Get some sleep and go to school this morning. Then come back here and in ten days I will get you ready to save Rukia."

Ichigo nodded again and then he left. School the following morning was almost surreal. No one remembered that Rukia had ever existed much less that she had suddenly vanished. Uryu Ishida wasn't present at School but that didn't surprise Ichigo. Ishida had fought against the same people who had crushed Ichigo to take Rukia away he would either be recovering from the fight to training for the next one.

Sado and Inoue were there but neither of them seemed to notice anything different. Not that Ichigo expected them to. The school day was the last before summer break so none of the classes were very long. And before much time had passed at all the teachers were saying good bye to them all for a month. Several of Ichigo's friends were making plans for the summer but he didn't pay attention to any of them. He simply packed up his things and slowly made his way home.

Inoue and Sado watched him go. They both wanted to say something to him. Anything. But they thought better of it. They knew what was going on and they knew that Ichigo had to deal with it himself. All they could do was support him with all their strength when the time came.

Skip

"'What a huge underground space! How did they ever fit it all under one little shop?' Is what you should be saying right about now Ichigo." Urahara explained as he led Ichigo into a immediately very impressive room.

It was massive. Much larger than any room that Ichigo had ever seen before. It looked rather much like a desert. The floor was covered in dirt. Random huge bolderes dotted the landscape alongside withered and dying trees and above their heads was a huge single light source the beat down on the room like the noonday sun.

"Yeah, yeah. It's all very amazing, are you ready to start this training or what?"

"Are you always so eager Mr. Kurosaki? Or am I special?" Urahara asked as he drove the butt of his cane into Ichigo's forehead. It passed right through and for a moment Ichigo could see back of his own head moving away from him with a cane sticking through it. A moment later the body in front of him fell down and as Ichigo looked down on it he saw the chain running from his chest.

"As you can see, you're no longer a Death God Mr. Kurosaki. Your powers have been destroyed and in its place you have become a normal human spirit. And that is useless if you are determined to save Rukia. So our first goal is to regain your Death God powers. So let's begin. Ururu would you come here please." Urahara said referring to a small girl standing a bit behind him. She had black hair done up in pig tails with very rosy cheeks. She seemed the definition of sweet and innocent. And she was wearing boxing gear.

"This is Lesson 1 of 3. Please fight Ururu here until one of you passes out."

"Are you kidding?" Ichigo asked.

"Please try not to die." Urahara added as Ichigo saw a faint movement in the corner of his eye.

He lunged to the side as Ururu smashed into the ground where he had been standing. Her fist left a crater in the ground. Ichigo panicked and took off in a sprint. Ururu followed him always a step behind driving after him with destructive punch after punch.

'This is nuts.' Ichigo thought to himself. 'If she hits me I'm dead. I'm running at full sprint and I can barely keep up with her. Wait a moment. If I can out run her then I can dodge her and if I can dodge her attacks then I could get it one of my own.' Ichigo realized as then he turned around.

Ururu came at him at full charge her right arm pulled back ready for yet another devastating punch. Ichigo watched it come. He studied intently and saw its inevitable path and at the last moment he jerked his head to the side and avoided instant death. Then he swung forward himself. He was aiming at her headband trying to push her to the ground with his greater weight. But, just a moment to late she jerked her head to the side and Ichigo clipped her face.

Her pupils dilated and before Ichigo knew what was going on she was standing on his fist. He noticed a moment later that she was also in the middle of a kick aimed at his head. Then there was a searing pain and then he had smacked into a surprisingly soft nearby bolder and he wasn't dead which once again surprised him. Then he saw that he smashed into the arms of the large man who had woken him up and that Urahara had grabbed Ururu's foot just before it smashed into him.

"Lesson 1 clear." Urahara declared.

"But she beat me." Ichigo stammered out dumbfounded.

"Of course she did. There was no way you could've beater her. What's important is that when she threatened your existence with that first punch you reacted and your soul gave you the power needed to dodge."

"And if it hadn't?"

"Then you would've died. But you didn't so own to lesson 2." Urahara died as his associate took out and axe and cut through Ichigo's soul chain as a massive hole opened up underneath him.

"Ichigo!" Urahara called to his pupil as he weaved a spell around his arms the bound them up quite tightly. "Your soul's chain has been cut and that means that you are now dead. If you don't become a death god within the next three days you will become a hollow and we will have to kill you. Good luck."

Skip

The hours passed quickly and Ichigo had no way to count them. He could only mark time by the erosions. They were few and brief and hurt like all hell. He could barely stand during them much less try and climb out of a hole without using his hands. He was running out of chain though and hand made no progress. He was down to maybe a forth of his chain left and was tired beyond all reason. Then it started.

All of the remaining links in his chain started to eat themselves. All of his chain was vanishing. The pain was excruciating and it only got worse when the chain stated to eat the link that was anchored in his chest. It felt like his chest was exploding it felt so much worse than being stabbed in the chest. It also felt very empty. And then he blacked out.

He came to a moment later in a completely different place. The pain was gone, as was the chain that should have come out of his chest. He was standing on the side of a building. If he looked straight ahead he could see the sky and behind him was the pavement. Beneath him was a window into the building. It was rather disorienting.

"Ichigo." He heard a voice say. It was deep and powerful and seem to be coming from an older man standing on top of a flag pole. He was wearing a long dark cloak had five o clock shadow and was wearing some very cool shades.

"Who are you?" Ichigo asked.

"You don't know? How pitiful. You should know me best of all."

"I don't know anyone so gloomy so you must be mistaken."

"Fine then I'll tell you. My name is -"

"What?"

"So you still can't hear me. How pitiful." The old man said as he stepped onto the side of the flag pole so that his feet now pointed at Ichigo's head.

"How are you standing like that?" Ichigo asked.

"Curious. I was about to ask you the same thing." And then Ichigo fell and so did the buildings around him. As they collapsed they broke apart into thousands of cubes and fell through the streets beneath.

"What's going on?" Ichigo asked the air. The old man appeared next to him to answer.

"Your world is falling apart because you are becoming a hollow. There is only one way to stop it all. In one of these countless cubes is you Death God powers if you find them you can unleash your power and stop this transformation."

Ichigo nodded as he hit the pavement and splashed through it like it was made out of water. Beneath it he saw numerous cubes land around him. He knew had only one guess. So he calmed his mind and focused on how his powers felt. In a second he knew which one it was. He rushed over to that cube and opened it up. He saw what looked like the handle to a sword and he smiled.

"I knew you could find me." The old man said appearing behind him in a moment. Ichigo looked back at him and smiled. Then the world around him shuddered. "Hurry!" The old man commanded.

Ichigo grabbed hold of the sword's handle but then a hand grabbed hold of his. It was white as a sheet of paper. Ichigo looked up and saw his own face looking back at him. It was almost completely white. Except for the lips and teeth which were as black as the night sky, and his eyes which were a golden as the sun.

"You don't think this is honestly going to work do you?" The face asked in a high pitched erratic voice. "You had this sword when they first came for her and it didn't do one damn bit of good. If you want some real power sit back and enjoy the ride."

Ichigo hesitated for just a moment and that was all it took.

In the real world Ichigo was still in the midst of his transformation. His face was slowly being covered by a hollow mask and he was striving against the restraints on his arms and he was about to break through them.

"Shop Keeper!" The assistant shouted.

"Very well Tessai. Go ahead." And with that Tessai began chanting under his breath weaving very powerful spells. First Ichigo was wrapped up like a mummy then dozens of pins were driven into him to hold him in place. Then a massive weight appeared over him and began to fall. A moment later the hole erupted in a brilliant light and exploded.

As the dust cleared it was clear that a man was standing in the midst of it all. One of Urahara's assistants, a young red haired boy named Jinta walked forward a bit a called out to Ichigo. Urahara drew his sword. The figure in the dust opened its eyes which glowed red and brilliant and for just a moment Urahara saw a tail flick out behind it.

They both moved in the same instant. Urahara swung at its head but the creature was already ducking and rolling past the shop keeper. It rushed at Jinta grabbed him and flew well back behind the group. It was about Ichigo's height with pale white skin and a hole in its chest. It wore a simple mask the looked a bit like a skull with red line marking the side of its face. Its feet looked like bird talons sinking into the ground. It had a short tail with a red tip. It also had a set of spike coming out of its shoulders.

It roared in the low powerful voice that only Hollows are capable of and held Jinta tightly by the throat with a sharp figure to his head. Urahara matched its gaze for a moment or two and then dropped his sword with a sigh. The creature dropped Jinta and took off at blinding speed towards the exit.

"Destructive art 61: White Fire wave lash out!" Urahara yelled at the creature with an outstretched hand as the world turned white for just a moment. White fire erupted from his hand and surged towards the hollow scrambling out of the giant room. The fire followed him and poured through the shop above them incinerating everything. The Hollow leapt through the roof and out into the air. Still the fire followed him. So it turned and lashed out at the fire and sliced through it with its bare hands. The fire poured around him and an instant later it had opened a portal through the skin of world and was gone. Beneath the ground Urahara cursed to himself as he felt the creature vanish.

"Well," He said to himself, "This could complicate things."


	2. Chapter 2 On the Run

Chapter 2: On the Run.

Elaina still wasn't sure what had happened to her. She now doubted that she ever would. The last thing she knew for certain was that that truck had come awful close to hitting her. But she was certain that it had somehow avoided her. She was certain that she was alright. But now everyone around her was ignoring her. No matter what she did she couldn't gain anyone's attention. They seemed to look straight through her, like she wasn't even there. She had seen her husband sit there and cry, she had heard her daughter asking strange question while choking back her tears to her brother. She had her suspicions, but she would never allow herself to believe it.

She couldn't stay at home anymore, she couldn't live that way, with her own family ignoring her existence. The powerlessness that she felt around them, she couldn't stand any of it. So she left, not that it was any better now. She hadn't a friend in the world, and no one would, or could notice her. At least that strange chain around her chest was getting lighter, but her heart felt heavier and heavier. She broke down completely one afternoon and screamed into the air for someone, anyone to pay attention to her. No one changed at all. She fell to the ground, shaking as she cried. She wished it could all just end.

She stopped suddenly. Something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. She wasn't certain what, there were thousands of people running around her, but she caught some movement. Her heart raced away. Her breathing became ragged. She was so excited, could there really be someone else out here?

She leapt over the dull grey world around her, she felt lighter than a feather and gazed into the shadows of an alley that had caught her eye. She saw something there. It was tall, at least 6'5", but it seemed slender. Her heart leapt inside of her, but she didn't realize that it was leaping away from that thing. Then she saw its eyes. They were golden, shining bright in the shadows. She thought just for a moment that she could see herself in them even at this distance. Then it moved.

She saw those eyes lean forward just an inch or so, then they were right in front of her face, consuming her entire world. Her neck began to ache but by then she was bathed in shadows, she was in an alley. This thing had moved at least a hundred feet while carrying her in less time then she could blink in. She tried to scream, but her throat was sealed such, she could only guess that it was grabbing her by the neck because she couldn't take her eyes off of its eyes.

Its eyes were the size of dinner plates but more harsh and angular. They were ringed with darkness. Not black colors or darker shades, but darkness itself. She could feel light being pulled into the area around those eyes. They themselves seemed to emit light, and this close she couldn't see herself in them, but she could feel herself being pulled into those eyes. She was a feast for its eyes.

She heard it growl in a high raspy voice and it opened its mouth. It bit down on her collar bone with a snap and crunch. She could feel her bones break beneath its jaw and she could feel her blood run out into its mouth. The pain was unimaginable. Her mind couldn't take it. She looked for anything else to distract her from the pain. She saw the hair of the beast: it was bright orange, almost unnaturally so. That is, she felt it looked strangely human, out of place on a creature that was eating her. It was wild hair, spiky in some places, straight or curled in others. It looked like hair that couldn't make up its mind. It was fascinating, she all but forgot about the pain, till she felt herself diminish. She felt strange, like a great deal of herself was suddenly pulled out of her. She felt smaller, and disoriented. She couldn't quite remember how she had gotten here. She couldn't even remember her own name or where these strange feelings were coming from.

The creature lifted its jaws from her side and looked down on her. And it was looking down on her, for it seemed so much larger now than it had before. She remembered what was happening as blood dripped down from its mouth. She wasn't frightened of it now, she wasn't even resisting it. It seemed that she had realized the inevitable and had calmly accepted it. She was going to become part of this thing and there was nothing she could do about it.

It opened its mouth and she could feel herself being pulled towards it. Its jaws fitted over her head effortlessly and she found its mouth to be oddly spacious. She didn't have long to admire it before she pushed further back into the esophagus which wrapped tightly around her. Her shoulders were now inside of its mouth and she could feels it tongue probing her body getting a thorough taste of her. She was still bleeding from where it had bitten her and she could still feel the blood pouring out of her over her body and over its mouth. It tilted its head back and gravity joined the muscles around her pulling her further and further down. After a few passing moments she could feel her legs passing over its tongue and everything around her faded to black.

Skip

He closed her mouth as the last of her passed away. For just a moment as her soul joined with his he could feel every memory she ever had pass over and through him. Everything that she had ever been or ever could be was laid bare before him. He ignored it all. He beat the memories down like they were just a stubborn morsel that needed swallowing. Just like he had done to all the others. And then he left.

He hadn't been alive all that long by then. No more than four of five hours at the most yet he was already quite certain of one thing above all others, he hated his memory. Memory confounded him. It shifted his attention away from the present to things that had already happened. Things that weren't happening now and could never happen again. He couldn't even effect any of these past things. What was worse is that the past also made him thing about the future, and that really confused him. All the things he could do, but wouldn't, all the things he isn't doing, but could. Plus it was so hard to keep track of it all. He had tried thinking about the future, he had foreseen every move he would make up to jumping off of a building, he had gone to jump only to realize he was still on the ground. It didn't help that had a very week sense of time to begin with. He didn't know for certain how long he had been alive or how fast time was passing. All he knew is that it wasn't passing fast enough.

If too much time passed he would start remembering things that hadn't happened to him at all. Things that had happened to someone else who would laugh with strangers, cry over some woman, comfort some girls. There were a few where he would fight some old man, and those were entertaining, but they never lasted. They always came back to that same black haired girl. That small, annoying, aggressive black haired girl who was always dragging him about, making him fight and risk his life for friends and strangers. There weren't many of her, but it always came back to her and she confused him more than anything else.

She made him angry. She made him sad. She made him happy, almost joyous even. Most of all, she made him restless. He felt that there was something more to her that just these emotions. Something he had to do to her, or perhaps with her. He couldn't guess. All he knew was that when he thought of her he got jittery, energetic, and anxious. All he knew was that he needed to hunt again, as soon as possible.

So he ran. He ran across the void that separated the hunting grounds from where he went to rest. He ran across the sandy floor of his home. He ran so fast the sand all but exploded around his feet. Then he leapt up into the stone trees that covered the desert and held it in their shadows. He ran from branch to branch. He ran through the air. He ran through the darkness. He ran until, he felt hungry again. Then he stopped.

He knew that the others were watching him. He knew what they thought of him, because he knew what he would think of himself. They were thinking that he was in motion, that he was changing, and that change is dangerous. He knew that they thought that he was dangerous, he knew that they would try to kill him. He also knew that they would fail. He didn't think about this, because he already knew it. Then he caught the scent and was off.

The scent was sweet and yet stale. It was intoxicating, yet strangely repulsive. It was what he lived for now. Now that he had caught it he could follow it to another meal. He could enjoy the sweet taste of another soul. He could enjoy the strength of another being added to his own. He could enjoy another conquest. And for the duration of the hunt he could forget about her.

He burst back into the hunting ground and held his place for just a second or two to get his bearings. The scent was quite far away, far more so than any of the others. A longer hunt might be nice, but it could also be dangerous. Part of him was ready to leap away; the other part stood still and sniffed the air. He could smell them too; they were always there when he hunted like a heavy, foul order clinging to the back of his throat and nose. The smelled filled him with boundless rage, and a curious hesitation. He looked for a closer prey.

He spotted a pair of children not far from where he entered clinging to each other and bound in chains. Their chains were wrapped around each other holding them tightly in an eternal embrace. He knew what they were, they were doomed. They were children who had died at the same time. Because they were young and innocent there shouldn't have been anything that could hold their souls to this world. But they were young and frightened of the world around them, and of the thought of leaving each other to make the trip over. They had grabbed hold of each other seeking comfort and now they were trapped. Eventually one of them would devolve into a hollow and eat the other.

He approached them swiftly, unwilling to spend unnecessary time in this world. As he drew near to them he got a full whiff of their scent and was all but knocked back by it. He realized that their situation wasn't quite as simple as he had first thought. These children, so young and innocent, hadn't been entangled in their own chains, they had been tied up there. Another hollow, a smart hollow who knew the benefit of a subordinate over a meal, had found them clinging to one another and had bound them up in their own chains. That hollow had placed his energy inside of them and was accelerating their transformation. When they did devolve, they would serve him, fight for him, feed him and die for the very hollow who had so cursed them. But the creature didn't truly care for such things.

He didn't need subordinates, he needed sustenance, and he needed it now. He swung his hands at the chains and tore them to pieces, had he left then, the children would've only had minutes of humanity left to them. But he didn't leave. He grabbed them both and bit down one of them swiftly. He tore away a bite filling the air with crimson blood and spiritual energy the was being drawn into his body. He bit down again and swallowed the remains of the child, while it looked up at him. He turned to the other child, a young black haired girl full of tears yet smiling at her murderer.

"Thank you." She whispered, "I…I… wanted to eat him myself. I didn't know how much longer I could've controlled myself. Thank you for saving him from me."

The creature paused, for just an instant and met her gaze. In that instant the memories of the boys soul fused with his own. He beat down most of them as normal but he lingered of his last few. He realized that the boy had been much closer to transforming than she had. He realized that the boy hadn't been fighting as hard to resist as she must have. He realized that the boy didn't deserve such a sister, or such tears. He realized that she deserved better than this. He couldn't believe it.

Why did he care about that? He was the hunter she was his prey! She was weaker than him, and he could get stronger by taking what little she had! Left to herself she would've become a hollow anyway, she should be grateful that she got to become part of such a powerful one as himself! She should!….. He should!…. Yet, she deserved better that this.

All the while the scent of the other was drawing closer to him. If he lingered to make a decision he would have to fight for it. He shouldn't have had to make a decision like this. Every fiber of his being demanded, screamed even to consume her and leave her with nothing. Yet there was something deeper than that. A voice stronger than that, and that voice forbid it. His body raged against such an idea, and his instincts swirled in indecision. He cried out and screamed at the top of his lungs desperate to do something. He almost didn't notice the other scent land behind him.

He did notice it though, and survival instincts kicked in. Action was necessary, if that bastard voice wasn't going to let them eat the girl, fine but he's not sticking around here to fight that thing. The impulse to harm the girl consented to survival, the voice went silent and consensus was reached, all in a fraction of an instant. The creature turned, and threw the girl at the approaching Death God.

The Death God hesitated to catch the girl and ended his charge. The moment it did the creature retreated into the void. The Death God froze in place. He was a young looking man, but in truth he had graduated from the academy almost fifty years ago. He had fought hundred of hollows in that time. And he had never seen any of them do anything like this.

"Why didn't he eat my like brother?" The girl asked him a way that almost suggested that she wished that the hollow had. But the Death God was distracted by this by the girl nature itself. She was tainted by a hollows energy and her souls chain was on the verge of collapsing. He set her down and preformed a Soul's Burial on her before responding.

"I don't know." He said to the back butterfly floating away on the breeze up towards Soul Society. "What's important is that he didn't. And that my superiors are never going to believe any of this.

Skip

"You let him transform into a hollow?" Yoruichi screamed in her low raspy cat voice as she swiped at Urahara's head with a clawed paw.

"You make it sound like I didn't even try to stop him. Give me some credit." Urahara pleaded as ducked and weaved around her swipes.

"You didn't try to stop him. You stood by and watched him transform at the bottom of that damn hole of yours. And when he did you let him escape! What the hell kind of training is 'become a Death God or a demon and die' anyway!"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time. He had been making such excellent progress with Rukia's powers that I was certain the couldn't help but make a break through on his own. I still don't know what went wrong."

"What went wrong is that instead of telling him anything that could've been useful or helpful in gaining his own powers, like how to make contact with his inner soul slayer, how to meditate, how to resist hollowification and buy a few precious seconds, you just threw him in a holw and said make progress or die. You didn't even follow up on your threat!"

"What would you have wanted me to do, kill him?"

"Well than at least his soul would be wandering around Soul Society somewhere. I could've gone there and brought him back for some real training."

"You know we don't have time for that."

"Time!" Yoruichi cried as she swiped at his face again. "Our best, our only chance of stopping this and saving Rukia is running about the Hueco Mundo eating humans and slaying Death Gods and you are worried about time."

"Of course I am still worried about time, we only have 25 days left to prepare Sado, Inoue and Ishida, for their journey and the battles ahead of them."

"You don't honestly intend to still send them do you?"

"Why not?"

"Inoue and Sado use Full-Bringers which while powerful are nowhere near a Captain's level of power. Ishida as a quincy could fight on par with a captain, but I doubt he could beat one without using forbidden techniques, and he can only beat a single captain at the most using them."

"But if they work together with you and choose their battles carefully, there might still be hope correct?"

"But they never would work together without Ichigo. Ishida, Sado and Inoue were all vague acquaintances at the most; Ichigo is the only commonality between them. None of them were friends with Rukia, none of them have a reason to risk their lives with Ichigo being there to give them one."

"Are you so certain that he won't be there?"

"You mean am I certain that a long hollow will attack a place the no hollow has dared to set foot in since the days when the Captain Commander went on patrols on the earth? Yes I am pretty certain he won't be there. His instincts would never allow him to behave so suicidal. Nor would they have any reason to be drawn there in the first place."

"If all that is true than why did hollows attack Soul Society in those long lost days?"

"What do you mean?"

"Events are not singular in nature. If it happened once, it can, and probably will happen again. Hollows were drawn to Soul Society, in the face of impossible power, by their instincts once before, so they can be drawn there again. We Death Gods tend to look down on hollows for being instinct driven, yet we forget the all Death Gods work long and hard to build the very instincts that are so natural to hollows. We also forget the true scope of instincts.

"We always focus on the destructive aspects of a hollow's instincts, their anger and desire to kill and consume. We ignore that fear, concern, the desire to possess and love are all natural instincts and thus part of a hollow's most basic thought processes. We always remember that hollows murder and consume strangers and we assume that is all motivated by blind anger. But a hollow's first victims are always its spouse, children, brothers, sisters and parents in that order. A hollow's first instinct is to join with, possess and protect those that it loves the most for all eternity. A hollow's most powerful motivator is most certainly that of love."

"You think that Ichigo is going to travel to Soul Society to rescue Rukia because he loves her?"

"I know that when Ichigo left here he was releasing a tremendous amount of power. In order to replenish that power he must've gone hunting by now. Yet I also know that in that time no hollows have appeared with a several miles of here, and nothing has attack the Kurosaki house hold. This means that Ichigo is hunting some other relation in that list I mention, and he knows that he must become stronger if he wants to reach her."

"So what do you want me to tell the kids?"

"Only what they need to know. That Ichigo is training to reach Rukia and will join them in Soul Society when they are ready."

"I hope you know what you're doing Urahara."

"So do I."

Skip

When he returned to his home he had already calmed down considerably. That strange voice had gone silent and all was right in the world again. He was furious at his pointless hesitation, but also curious about the source. He never imagined that he might have let the girl go because he was feeling merciful. He had no idea what mercy was and if someone ever tried to explain it to him it would confuse him to no end. He instead believed that there must be some other instinct guiding his action, something that wasn't key to his survival, but was key to his being. These thoughts confused him and he returned to his running. He ran for only a short while before his was hungry again, the boy hadn't been much sustenance after all. He caught a new scent and was off. All memory of this one abnormality was forgotten as he returned to the thrill of the present.

As he departed for another kill he was watched by another pair of cruel eyes. These were red and harsh, full of calculation, cold and brutal. The eyes were set in a very large mask defined by a wide smile and small feather on the top. He wore a long thick brown coat of hair and was supported by four grasping, three toed, hand like feet. He thought quietly to himself.

'So we have a runner eh? How unusual, he probably won't last though. Still, he wasn't in that world for very long. Even a runner like him shouldn't be able to find and consume prey that quickly unless.'

"Hey you!" He called out to a nearby subordinate hollow.

"Yes Grand Fisher?" The hollow asked crawling along the ground to avoid direct contact.

"Go to the living world and check up on those two kids I was making into subordinates and make sure they are okay."

"Yes Master!" The hollow cried and scurried off.

"Do you think that the runner killed your prey?" a larger bird like hollow inquired.

"He may have."

"Will you deal with him if he did?"

"Of course."

"That may be rather difficult. Runner grow very quickly, if you're not careful he may surpass you before to long. You should kill him the moment he returns."

"You think I runt like that poses any danger to a beast like me? Don't forget, I have entrusted with a power far greater than that of any other hollows by our master."

"Perhaps you would like to explain that to the Gillian?" The bird hollow challenged as a handful of the great black giants lumbered about nearby. The towered over any of the hollows in all of the forest, they towered over most towers in the human world for that matter. They were all virtually mindless yet full of incredible power. The Grand Fisher almost shuddered at the thought.

"They are servants of the master as well, to waste them would be a crime. Besides runners are an opportunity that should not be wasted casually. If I wait just a few hours: he will consume dozens of souls and makes his own soul all the more sweet to eat."

Skip

Shiba was out on his first solo patrol. He had been preparing for this night all his life. He had suffered six grueling years in the academy, worked his butt off trying to get as strong as he could. When he graduated he thought that he was as powerful as he could ever become, then he had joined the seventh squad and realized that there was so much left for him to learn. He had fought long and hard in the squad, been embarrassed and badly bruised countless times in the sparing ring by more experienced enemies. He had studied his captain carefully. He had studied his vice captain even harder. He was ready to for this. He knew he was.

He had entered the world of the living earlier that morning and got right to work. He had carefully patrolled the area. He had mapped out all the places where a hollow could hide itself. He had sharpened his sword by meditating on it in a secluded place and had done everything else he could think of to get ready.

His patient work was well rewarded. No more than six hours into his first patrol an enemy, a hollow a little larger than a bus, came to meet him. He tracked with a hell butterfly and struck it from behind as quickly as possible. It was over before he had even realized it had started. He had saved a life, and it hadn't been that difficult at all. He was even excited when he was warned that another one was coming.

Shiba had always been extremely perceptive when it came to spiritual energy so he got his warning a bit sooner than other Death Gods would've. So he got to the area where the hollow would appear before it came through. He braced himself in a hidden area that gave him a good view and waited for a moment or two. The creature burst through the void at break neck speeds he could barely follow its movement or get a good look at it. He leapt and slashed at it on instinct.

The hollow noticed him at the last possible moment and spun away from him. Shiba got back up as quickly as possible and took up a defensive stance. The hollow was very small, barely taller than a human. His white body was almost devoid of any marks save for a few red lines above his right eye and a red section of his tail. He shoulders had spikes on them but it honestly looked like they were still growing, like the hollow wasn't finished growing quite yet.

The creature back up slightly, it seemed hesitant. Shiba smiled and leapt at it, with his sword drawn back over his shoulder. He lunged at the creature and drove his sword forward, it sidestepped him almost effortlessly. He turned as slashed at its throat. The creature backed up but was still nicked on the throat. It then further leapt back far out of his reach and grabbed its throat.

"Feeling pain for the first time kid?" Shiba asked it feeling rather confident, "It's not so nice to be on the receiving end is it?"

The hollow held its throat and smelled its own blood. He caught a scent off of it. It remembered something, it remembered the smell of blood and steel mixing together. It was a smell that it had experienced dozens of times in its past life. Perhaps for the first time the creature realized that these things threatening it were carrying soul slayers. Then it roared.

It was deep. It was powerful. It reached into Shiba's mind and awakened his most primal fears. It was a roar echoed by every predator throughout all of history. It was a roar that announced to the world that something was going to die very soon. It was a roar that told Shiba that he might be in over his head. Then it moved.

Shiba held his sword right in front of him but he could barely see the creature move at all much less hope to block it. The hollow ignored his sword and grabbed his head with in its massive hands and threw its weight to one side and slammed Shiba into a nearby wall. As he rebounded off it, the hollow continued to twist around and grabbed Shiba's head with its clawed foot and smashed his face into the concrete. Shiba blacked out for a moment but held it together. He was seeing stars and was bleeding through his nose and teeth. His ears were ringing and his body felt numb, yet his still clung to his sword.

He drove the tip of the sword into the ground and tried to hoist himself back upright. The hollow stared at his sword. It couldn't take its eyes off of it. It forgot about the life almost smothered by its foot. Memories arose of the last time he had seen a soul slayer. Thoughts about such a sword rose in its mind. He discovered a strange objective hidden down in the depths of his sword. He hated such a sword. He wanted to destroy that sword. He wanted to destroy every sword like that in all reality. He wanted to take on the very best that such swords had to offer and crush them all and grind them up into dust so that they all would be forgotten. He wanted this so much that he had forgotten the hunt.

"_**NAME IT"**_ The hollow screamed at the warrior held under his foot. Shiba could barely breath much less speak. _**"NAME IT!"**_ The hollow ordered again. Shiba could do nothing. Before long the hollow seemed to sniff the air, realize that he was helpless and left him.

Several hours later Shiba awoke in the Fourth Squad hospital back in the Court of Pure Souls. He was hooked up to a breathing aperatus and could barely speak or move. His head felt fuzzy and his body felt numb. He looked over the room and quickly wished that he hadn't. He saw captain Unohanna commander of the fourth squad looking over him with her motherly but strangely distant and uncaring eyes. Next to her was the old mountain of a man that was the Captain Commander himself with his vice captain next to him. There was also another man wearing the white uniform of the science division with a pair of nub like horns on his head.

"The patient has regained conciseness. Akon please ask your question quickly before he slips back under." Unohanna said

"Do you recognize this hollow?" The scientist, Akon, asked while holding up a sketch of the hollow that had almost killed Shiba. Summoning all of his strength he just managed nod.

"This confirms it Commander. The Reiatsu we detected on this warrior is the same that we have detected in almost thirteen different missing hollow incidents in the last 11 hours alone. It also matches the description given to us by the only two Death Gods from those incidents who spotted their quarry before it crossed the void."

"Has the science department concluded its analysis of this Reiatsu?" The Commander asked.

"We have. This hollow is releasing a great amount of spiritual energy drawn from all of the souls that it has consumed. This constant consumption of power would make this hollow extremely powerful despite the few number of souls it has consumed, it also would give it a tremendous appetite. We have a runner on our hands."

"Is there any sign of this hollow calming down in the near future?"

"No sir. It will continue to hunt and consume at an accelerated rate. The longer we wait the more powerful it will become."

"Can you predict where it will attack next?"

"It seems to be following a standard Heisenberg-Oleic hunting pattern. If we can gather absolutely accurate data on its next few entrances and exits we should be able to predict down to the second and inch were it will strike."

"Very well. Inform and equip the Death Gods in the areas where it will most likely appear next, order them not to engage the target. When you have gathered enough data turn your finding over to the Eleventh Squad and dispatch their Third Seat to deal with this renegade."

"Yes sir."

End.


	3. Chapter 3 To be Hunted

Chapter 3: To be Hunted

He had to admit, they almost caught him off guard. When the creature made his way back across the void after his latest kill he immediately took off at a mad sprint. He knew that they were watching him, but they were always watching him. So he paid them no mind. He simply continued running till he would feel hungry again. He hadn't expected them to attack like that. He almost didn't see it coming. He was almost hit. And the other bastard almost got away with it at that.

He could barely describe just how thrilling it was to tear into an opponent like he did. Twisting his arm about and slashing across his victim's throat, he could feel the life force slipping out of his enemy. It was even more thrilling than what he had done to that Death God all those hours ago. It was intoxicating. He noted that he might soon get used to it though as more hollows were coming after him.

The numbers were ridiculous. There were at least a dozen enemies coming down on him and he knew that there were thousands more eyes looking at him from all about. If he stood his ground he would be overwhelmed in seconds, so he did not stand. He grabbed the first limb that came at him and took off into the air.

Hollows do not fight like other creatures do. Most creatures fight to kill and to escape. Hollows kill to eat. That is all they care about, that is all that motivates them. So when they fight they don't try to cut up their foes or crush them like they try to do to the Death Gods that hunt them. They always try to grapple, they try to strangle, and they try to eat. Hollows intend to preserve their foes as much as possible so that they gain the most reward when they do make the kill. Or at least they try to do this when they are the ones hunting and not the ones being hunted. When on the receiving end, all that matters is survival, by any means necessary.

The hunting hollows know this of course. They know that their prey will lash about as wildly as possible and try to cut, tare and bite at them to kill them. Therefore they move very carefully, and always in great numbers. So when their prey grabbed one of them and tore off into the trees none of them moved to help it. Doing so would endanger their lives and they weren't about to do something that stupid.

The hunted hollow dropped its victim but held onto its foot with his tail. As he moved about he turned harshly from side to side smashing it into trees. Before long he heard a satisfying snap and let go. Now he moved far faster and took off into higher trees. Only a few hollows could keep up with him but they all stayed close together to that he couldn't pick them off one at a time. He had expected as much. But he still had an advantage over them; he was the one who decided where they went.

The hollow made his way over towards a large, broad tree that dominated the area around it. He leapt up to it, but grabbed on to the side and swung around it. When the hollow group passed him he lunged into the back of one of the larger, slower ones and dug his claws in deep while he smashed its legs with his tail. It wasn't quite dead yet but it was close enough, he kicked off of it and sent the monster careening into the group of forerunners while he launched back at the main group far behind him.

They were still a fair distance off as he approached them so he had plenty of time to take the group into consideration. There were eight in front of him and five healthy ones behind him, but he had at least half a minute lead on them, so they weren't important. There were three large slow hollows amongst that group surrounded by five smaller ones. Either group of potential targets could be a trap. The large ones were either so slow that he could rush right over them, or they expert grapplers who could hold him down while the nimble ones went in for a kill. The small ones were either easy targets or they were a kind of mine ready to grab his limbs till their dyeing breath and slow him down while the larger ones smashed him down. More than likely though, they were all dangerous.

He focused on one of them, the one that would require the least amount of course correction to hit. It was one of the larger ones, with four arms and a rather impressive set of tusks extending from its mask. There was no doubt in the hollow's mind that it would pin him down in an extended wrestling match if given the chance, he couldn't afford such a battle of attrition. Pain would be his ally here, and he used it to his fullest. Moments before meeting his target head one he reached out to grab those massive tusks before it. It immediately grabbed his hands trying to hold him in place while the others closed in around him. While it did, the hunted hollow swung his legs forward and kicked his foe in the mask itself, cracking it and tearing the tusks off of its face. It reared back, screaming in pain, losing its grip and releasing its prey.

The hollow leapt away from the group but the rest were closing in, ignoring their fallen comrade and moving in for the kill. He grabbed the face of one of the smaller ones with his clawed feet, twisted away and snapped its neck and while kicking a second one into the tree. This only gave him an instant of breathing space, but that was more than enough to leap away.

"Curious." A voice deep within the hunted hollow commented into the mental ear of the instincts that drove and guided the beast itself. "If this were us: fighting as a pack of ravenous hollow looking for a quick meal out of a brother of ours, and several of our group were injured like that we would take down the weaker prey. Why do they hunt us like this?"

"They fear us." The instincts responded, in their ever erratic, slightly high-pitched voice. "They seek to destroy what they fear no matter the costs."

"Do they really fear our growth that much? Were they human we would call this jealousy, not fear."

"We are not human."

"We were; they were. Do instincts make that much difference?"

"See for yourself. Besides, what do you think is happening, is there some malevolent force out there manipulating them into killing us?"

"Is that so impossible?"

"Admittedly not, but it changes nothing. We will kill them, and if something greater is behind this, we will kill it to."

"So be it. By the way, there's one above us now."

"We see him, it really isn't a problem, we just swing our tail out above us, catch this branch here, spin off of it into him and dig our claws into his lungs like so."

"That also puts us well above the rest of them too. Nicely done." The voice concluded, as the other trapped voices were forced to look on at the shear destruction that they were wrecking.

Skip

"That's the sixth one in less than three minutes." The bird like hollow commented to the Grand Fisher, in a way that was really starting to grate his nerves.

"Acceptable losses." The Grand Fisher retorted.

"I see, so at what point does it become an unacceptable loss?"

"Every hollow that falls only serves to prove how valuable this kill will be."

"And how narrow minded and dangerous this idea of yours is."

"I don't see the danger."

"That thing is tearing through your servants effortlessly. You waited too long, it has become too powerful. Call this off before we lose any more."

"Servants exist to further their master, they should be grateful to die for the likes of me." The Fisher said swelling with pride.

"They aren't really your servants, they're his, and he won't be so happy about this."

"When he sees how powerful I have become, he won't care how many common hollow I sacrificed to gain this power. He will welcome me amongst his elite."

"Assuming you kill it."

"Of course I will kill it! How can you possibly doubt me?"

"I've never seen you do anything like that." The bird hollow said pointing at how the hunted hollow had found hole in the side of a tree. It had leapt down the hole, and came out a bit above the first one, by which point all the hollow had gathered around the hole it had vanished down and struggling to follow. The hunted hollow sized up the largest hollow of the group and lunged at it. It grabbed its prey by the head pulling out into the air. As they fell, the hunted hollow planted its feet on its victim's shoulders and jerked upward, ripping the head off its shoulders. The bird hollow almost heard its friend try to gulp down raw terror.

"How many times do I have to tell you," The Grand Fisher declared, almost more to himself that to his partner, "it's not power that matters but the mind. I have survived Death Gods hunting me for fifty years because I am smart. It will fall to my clever traps."

"That thing has killed more humans in just two days than you typically kill in a year or more. Unless you have one hell of a good trick up your sleeve you should back down now."

"And admit defeat to the likes of a mindless brute?" The fisher shouted at his partner, shocked at the thought of such a thing.

"It's a damn sight better than becoming a headless corpse."

"That's it! I have had it up to here with your negative attitude. You have opposed my every decision since we joined up with-" Their argument was interrupted as the hunted hollow tore past them through the air while wrestling with the last of the large hollow hunting it. It then slammed into a tree behind the arguing pair but it wasn't stunned. The hollow kicked upwards and threw its foe up into the air while it flipped around. As the hunting hollow began to fall, the hunted touched the side of the tree for the briefest instant with its foot and shot upwards, impaling it's target through the chest as it went.

The smaller hollow surrounded him, but they hesitated for a while. This prey that they had been sent to coral had now wiped out the largest and the strongest of the group and all but halved their numbers. They couldn't really consider themselves the hunters at this point. Besides that, their boss was here and surely he would put an end to all of this. After all, he was a chosen servant.

The Grand Fisher soon realized that this was his cue to take center stage and he was not one to disappoint. He descended into the midst of his hunting party and boldly starred down his intended prey. Refusing to so much as bat an eye, he held himself tall and proud, leering at his foe through his ever-smiling mask. The hunted hollow didn't even notice him, he was more focused on the hollow who had been hunting him up till then. Refusing to be ignored the Grand Fisher decided to call his enemy out.

"So boy, you think that just because you have withstood a few small fries you're ready to take on the likes of me? Don't you know who I am? I am the king of this forest and every hollow that dwells with in it! Ever since you took that kid…" He went on, the hollow to be honest wasn't listening to him. He couldn't, voices with in him were shouting.

"Its him!" The first voice shouted so loud that everything within him heard it.

"Who is it?" A lesser voice asked speaking out for those who were trapped.

"Him! We have to kill him! He must die! Now!" The first voice demanded.

"He seems powerful, maybe we should avoid him. They aren't attacking us like they were before, perhaps we can escape?" A weak female voice mewed.

"There is no escape from here! We should die and be done with it!" The weakest voice complained.

"NO!" The first voice shouted drowning out all others instantly. "He can't escape! Kill him NOW!"

The instincts nodded, not that they had to be told, but these emotions were delicious! The fear in the voices of their victim, the furry in the voice of his king. It was unbelievable, how could he have spent so much time asleep when things like this were out here to be sampled. Then he roared.

He didn't roar internally. This was a very external roar, the sort of roar which could crack the stone trees around him. A roar that silenced the fisher and scattered his minions. A roar that put the fear of god into everything and anything around him. The roar was so incredible that even his own mask began to crack. Then he leapt.

The fisher had been hovering in the air, and had nothing stable to hold himself to, not that he could've stopped a charge like that if he had. The raging beast before him grabbed his mask and drove him backwards. Reacting quickly he sharpened his fur and twisted a part of it into a spike that he drove at the chest of his foe, but he enemy leapt back at the last moment, avoiding the deadly spear and sending the Fisher flying into a nearby tree.

The stone tree cracked as he struck it, but he refused to be distracted by the pain, the hollow was coming again. He braced against the tree and swung out with his claws at the back of the beast, who took the blow and slammed its shoulder into the fishers chest and sent him back further into the tree. The mighty tree of the hollow forest shook violently beneath the second blow. The Fisher had the wind knocked out of him, but he was still not out of the fight, he grabbed his enemy by the shoulders and threw him away.

The hollow would not give up the offensive, and swiftly returned. This time he kicked at the fisher, who blocked it with his arm. The Fisher tried to grab at the hollow but it pushed off his guard, flipped over, and came back again with another barrage of blows. Under each on the Fisher was driven further and further back into the shaken tree and before long it crack completely beneath the rain of blows and shattered.

As the fisher fell through the air he looked back up at his enemy. He was still being pursued. Even as the giant stone tree collapsed around them, this crazy fool was driving after him. The Fisher gathered energy around his feet and leapt away from what would soon be a crash zone. No more than a hundred feet later, his pursue crashed into his back, digging its white claws into the Fisher's back. The pain felt hotter than any fire or any gash that had ever been given to him by any Death God or any other hollow. It was terrifying. He jumped away from that pain, he had to get away from it even if it meant leaping head first into the sandy floor below. The other Hollow landed a few dozen feet a way panting heavily, for the first time since he had been born he stopped and rested a moment.

"ENOUGH!" The Grand Fisher screamed as he struggled to stand up right. Pure rage and adrenalin, over rode the pain from his nerves, as he gripped his mask. "I will not stand he and be done in by some up start two bit, running hollow! Don't you know who I am! Don't you know what I am! I AM A SERVANT OF THE GOD OF THIS HELL! I AM AN…." He screamed, as the hollow decided that resting and listening were very boring, and attacked.

Skip

A few thousand yards away from the two hollows locked in battle there stood a group of curious creatures. Common Death Gods would call these things Menos Grande, and would fear them, with good reason. The elite of Soul Society would scoff at them and call them Gillian or common Giants. Hollow reacted much the same way to these things. A Gillian, didn't really have a mind, it had thousands. And it took a very long time for anything to realized by those thousands of minds, but once it was it had the power of thousands of souls to get it done. Gillian weren't stupid, they were honest and simple. They lived by simple laws, to which there were no excuses. One of those laws was that hollows did not fight other hollows.

Eventually, they realized that a fight was taking place beyond their sight range. Eventually they started to head towards that fight. Eventually they would arrive. Much sooner than then, every hollow with a mile or more would flee for their lives. Even the Grand Fisher knew, Gillian were stupid; far to stupid to show mercy or hesitation.

However, Gillian did know a few things that other hollow could never dream off. They knew what true power was like. They knew their limits. They knew how to make a cero, or rather, they knew how to unmake everything very quickly. They also knew why it was always dark in a forest with out leaves. They knew that the sky could fall. And they knew that above the second Desert, the real demons prowled, and were to be feared.

They would also have known that when that great tree fell to the hunted hollow's relentless blows, it would not pass unnoticed. They didn't know, because they didn't see it fall. But, high above them all: someone did see it. And that someone was a rather curious individual, especially when it came to anything powerful enough to destroy a hollow's tree.

End.


	4. Chapter 4 To be Taught

Chapter 4: To be taught

In the world of the living two Death Gods stood on the side of a skyscraper looking straight ahead at the stars above the world. It was an awkward place to be in, but they had been assured that the runner hollow would show up here. So they had come all the way out here and they had stood in the exact right place, patiently waiting for the precisely calculated moment when the hollow was going to show up. That moment had passed by almost three hours ago.

"It's not coming is it?" The first Death God, a bald man with a rather strange mark above his eyebrow asked.

"I don't think so." The other answered; he was a rather effeminate looking man with straight black hair and dark eyeliner.

"Better call head quarters then." The first one concluded in a rather disappointed voice, as if he looked forward to a chance to risk his life against a demon. He pulled out a simple phone from his uniform and stared at it for a few moments. "How does this damn thing work again?"

"You flip it open and speak in to the little holes on the bottom."

"And then it sends a message to Soul Society?"

"No the people in Soul Society hear you through it."

"That's rather amazing." He opened the phone, and said hello.

"You have to hold it the other way around." His partner corrected him. He grunted and switched it up.

"Hey! Are guys listening?"

"Ah, Ikkaku," A voice responded from the phone, "Its about time you checked in, we were starting to think that you both had died. I presume that you have dealt with this issue."

"It never showed up." Ikkaku responded.

"What?"

"We've been out here for three and a half hours and it never showed up."

"Ah, hold on." The voice said, when it spoke again it was much softer, "He says the hollow never showed up. What does that mean?"

_"What! How the hell could have not showed up?"_ A very soft voice said, as if in the back ground.

"Boss wants to know how it couldn't have showed up?" The first voice translated.

"I don't know, we were here all afternoon and we never saw it."

"He says that they never saw it."

_"Those idiots! They must be standing on the wrong damn building."_

"Which building are you standing on?"

"We're not standing on a building we're standing on the side of a building."

"Yeah which one?"

"The really tall one."

"Well, that's not really descriptive, hold on I'll run a scan to make sure you're in the right place."

"I know I'm in the right place. The question is 'where is that damn hollow you promised me?'"

"It should be there. Well not there, it would've left by now, but it should've been there when we said it would."

"Well it wasn't."

"Boss thinks you're standing on the wrong building. Hold, on the scans complete. Huh."

"Is that a good 'huh' or a bad 'huh'?"

"Boss?" The voice asked to the world around it, and not to Ikkaku once again.

_"Yeah what is it?"_

"There in the right place boss."

_"Impossible."_

"Yeah well they are."

_"And they haven't fought the hollow? What are they blind. It should've come through there, they must have missed it."_

"No boss, I also ran a scan of the surrounding area, and there's no sign of the runner's spiritual energy."

_"What's going on over here?"_ A new, high pitched, nasally sort of voice asked that, Ikkaku believed, belonged to the head of the science division.

_"Those Idiots from the eleventh squad missed the hollow."_ The first quiet voice explained.

"No, the hollow they were supposed to hunt didn't show up."

_"You mean the runner that the Captain Commander is so worried about? Should it have appeared by now?"_

"_Yes my calculations confirmed that the hollow should've broken through the void almost three hours ago in that spot."_

"Well obviously you were wrong boss." The first voice from the phone tried to point out with wicked glee.

_"Unlikely, I double checked those calculations myself."_ The science head explained. _"More than likely, the hollow has simply been tied up in Hueco Mundo. Have those peons hold their positions. The creature should make its way there sooner or later. Run a full sweep of all sectors to make sure it hasn't broken the pattern all together."_

"He wants you to hold position and wait for the hollow to attack." The phone's voice explained.

"Wait just a second here, you expect us to just wait here for the hollow? It's been three hours already? How long do we have to stay here?"

"Till it gets there?"

"Put your boss on the line." Ikkaku demanded.

"He wants to talk to you." The voice said to those behind him.

_"I don't have time for that meat head. Just hang up and run down to the gates and seal them off to him."_

"They won't like that. They'll want a good explanation."

"_Grunts don't need explanations, they need orders. Get to it."_

"Right." The voice concluded and hung up.

"What did they say?" The second Death God asked Ikkaku.

"They want us to wait here for it."

"Will we?"

"Well…. That poor guy who got so cut up by that damn thing promised me that it would be one hell of a fight."

"You're not honestly considering this?"

"Why not? Do you have somewhere to be?"

"My hair isn't going to hold in these conditions."

"You can go home if you want. I think I'm going to wait."

"Fine, I'll stay as well."

"This hollow better be something else."

Skip

The Grand Fisher lunged forward at his foe swinging his massive sword in a wide arc at the hollow it had been hunting. That hollow easily leapt to the side avoiding it; then it stared at the blade for the sometime as if unsure of what to make of it. It looked and smelled like a Death God's Soul Slayer, but the hollow wasn't sure. It felt different, it felt wrong somehow, like it was lacking something.

"You didn't see this coming did you, you little punk." The Grand Fisher smirked as he pulled his mask apart and revealed his face behind it. "That's right, I am more than any lowly hollow such as yourself or anything you have ever met! I am an Arrancar! A new breed, no the next evolution of all hollows! You are like a roach compared to me….

This was wrong, the hollow thought to itself. A hollow should never willingly reveal its face. A hollow's face was its very soul, which was weak and fragile. A hollow needed its instincts to protect itself, no sword could ever replace them. To expose itself like that was insane; and stupid.

The Grand Fisher saw its foe narrow its eyes and rebalance its stance. His power didn't intimidate it. He sighed. Such a foolish enemy, when will it realize that it is outmatched? He swung his blade with a wide slash at his enemy's chest. The hollow jumped over the sword, hardened then energy around its feet and charged the Fisher, who quickly brought his sword back up to block the claws driving toward him. The hollow grabbed hold of the blade with his bare hands, pulled forward, flipped over the sword and kicked the Fisher in the face. Blood poured from the Fisher's nose as two bones cracked in his face, causing him to fall back in pain.

The hollow jumped up above him, faint traces of blood fell from his hands where he had grabbed the edge of the sword. He drew his claws out and began to descend on his fallen foe. Desperate to gain some breathing room, the Fisher lashed out wildly at the enemy before him, his blow lacked power and the hollow brushed its aside and landed on his chest, claws first. More pain and blood escaped from the Fisher's chest as the hollow lacerated him relentlessly. He swung with his free arm, catching the hollow in the face to knock him off and back. His greater strength drove his foe away but only for a moment.

The Fisher rolled back over his head trying to regain his footing, no sooner was he up than the hollow leapt at him fangs bared. The hollow saw that his enemy's grip on his sword was weak and struck quickly. He planted one hand into the sand pivoting around it; hit the Fisher's sword hand and knocked the sword free. The Fisher was startled and hesitated. The hollow saw the opening and attacked again, this time at the legs, driving his claws deep into the Fisher's thigh. He then threw his arms up and set the Fisher back on his back, the hollow then leapt into the air and came down on top of foe, going for the neck with his fangs.

The Fisher grabbed the hollow's side and tried to push him away, but the hollow dug its claws into his chest and held its place. For what seemed like an hour the two strove against each other, the Fisher trying to tear his enemy away or switch his hand positioning and strangle him, while the hollow tried to pull itself closer to his neck.

"What the hell are you all waiting for!" The Fisher screamed into the dark air around him, "Kill him already!"

No one answered him. Not a single voice sounded, or a single shadow moved in the forest around him. The Grand Fisher cursed himself for letting this situation progress this far.

"ORRRRARRRR!" A deep low voice roared in the distance. It wasn't a forceful roar, or a dangerous sounding roar. It was a roar that casually announced that a hunt had begun.

"Damn it!" The Grand Fisher cursed, "Those are the Menos Grande! They have realized what we're doing and are coming here to stop it. If you don't let go of me we are both going to die!"

"AHHHHHRAAAAARRRRR!" The hollow cried in response, digging its claws in deeper and pulling itself forward.

"You idiot! Do you want to die?" The Fisher reasoned as he redoubled his own efforts to push his enemy away.

"I dare say he wants to kill you." A new voice concluded from above them, and as it did it casually unleashed the power it had been holding back to hide its presence. The power was heavy. Not so heavy that it was difficult to breathe, but more than enough to make both warriors realize they were out classed. Even the hollow snapped its head up to look at the intruder.

He had a face. That was the first problem. The second was the look in the eyes on that face. They were filled with hunger like any hollow's eyes should be, but it was a strange kind of hunger. It was a focused hunger, more of a lust than anything else. The eyes were focused on them, but not any one of them as it would if the watcher were lusting after them, but on what they were doing. Those eyes were lusting for battle, for destruction. The third problem was the body around that face. It made no sense. The Fisher at least looked like a hollow who's mask had been broken, but this looked like something completely different.

He was covered in a purplish grey armor that wrapped around his body highlighting the taunt muscles that held him together. He didn't have feet, he had paws. He arms were human and were the only things that weren't armored. He had long blue hair that framed his head like a lion mane, with a crown and cat ears set on his brow. His wicked smile was almost hidden buy a white jawbone, with large pointed teeth, set on top of them. He had a sword at his side, but it seemed damaged as if it had been abused and ill kept.

The fourth thing wrong with him was the feel of his power. It felt similar to the Fisher's spiritual energy, yet it was somehow better, more complete one might say. It was still missing something though, this was clearly an older more developed power. Even in the hollow, it provoked a very basic terror and fear for its existence.

"You're Grimmjow Jaggerjaquese." The Fisher managed all but dumbfounded, then he heard the roar of the Menos closing in on him and remembered his present predicament. "Don't just stand there help me! Get this damn pest off of me before he kills me!"

"Hey there kid." Grimmjow said with a broad smile to the hollow ignoring the Fisher's pleas. "You are one serious kind of bastard aren't you?"

The hollow glared and growled in response. It lifted one claw out of the fisher and turned ready to face this new force, to the death if needed. Somehow, Girmmjow's broad smile got even larger when he saw this.

"That is some powerful Reiatsu you're putting out." Grimmjow continued, "It's so powerful that your mask is cracking and might break soon if you're not careful. A hollow's mask will only break if it meets an enemy it knew in life. So that means that in life you met that Grand Fisher and lived to remember it. Right?"

The hollow froze, how did he know that? For just a moment its grip weakened, if the Fisher had been paying attention he could've escaped. But he wasn't he was dumbfounded by what he was hearing.

"That means you must've have been one powerful little bugger in life. Now here's what interesting. When a powerful soul dies all of Soul Society and all of Hueco Mundo knows it and there is usually one hell of a battle over that soul's fate. In fact, I think I remember hearing about a Menos and a swarm of hollow being drawn over to some no name little town not to recently, so that is all quite possible. But, if your soul was caught up in that battle that means one of two things should've happened to it. Either you got rescued by a Death God and sent to Soul Society, or you got eaten by a hollow and became part of it.

"But you aren't part of another hollow; if you were your mask wouldn't break at the sight of the Grand Fisher, so you must be dominant over that body. That means one of two things. One: a hollow ate you and then you rebelled against its rule and consumed its soul from the inside out. Two: you managed to not only live through that massive battle over your soul, but fought past both sides so that you quietly devolve into a hollow on your own. Judging by how sharp your fighting instincts are and how quickly you've reacted to me I'm guessing that the latter happened. Am I right?" Grimmjow finished with a grin so wide it looked like the moon was rising over them.

"So what are waiting for? Kill him already." He added, as the hollow's eyes narrowed and it swiftly turned back and bit down into the Fisher's side before it had time to react.

"Why?..." The Fisher asked as the hollow began to devour him.

"What the hell kind of question is that?" Grimmjow asked all but laughing as he did, "He's stronger than you, with a greater chance to grow, you should be grateful for a chance to become part of something like him."

The Fisher's eyes rolled back, and he went silent. That silence died quickly as a Menos roared one last time as they came within sight of the hollow standing over his new prey.

"Ah," Grimmjow noted as he saw them, "Gillian, you know they don't take kindly to hollows eating each other around here. I would move if I were you."

No sooner did he finish than an eerie red light began to gather around one of the Gillian. An instant later the world turned red as a cero poured out of the desert turning the sand into glass. The hollow had leapt far up into the air to avoid it, still dragging the Grand Fisher's corpse in tow. Grimmjow appeared out of nowhere right beside him.

"Nice moves," He commented, "But you will need to do better than that to avoid the next one. Or five."

Several Gillian had now gathered and were charging their ceros easily tracking their target even at this distance. They fired again, the ceros intersected at were the hollow had been, and then they exploded sending the hollow flying away and lighting the Fisher's corpse on fire.

"Here, move like this!" Grimmjow ordered as he slipped through the air nimbly dancing around the incoming ceros. The hollow had no choice but copy him. He came pretty close to death once or twice but managed to stay alive.

"Ahhahahahaha!" Grimmjow laughed as he watched the hollow awkwardly dance about, "Keep it up. Now try this one."

In a moment Grimmjow vanished, in a slight thump of noise. He reappeared a moment later. "What are you waiting for? How many times to have to demonstrate it? Listen and learn already." He added, appearing and vanishing between each sentence. The hollow did watch, and listen. At first a voice within suggested that the sound was from a sonic boom as Grimmjow broke the sound barrier. The instincts all but laughed at a ridiculous idea like that. But then it saw the answer. The sound wasn't form the speed it was the source of the speed.

The hollow gathered a bit of spiritual energy around his skin, compressed it down into a point and released it all in a quick burst. Then he rode on the waves of power rippling out from the epicenter and vanished in a moment. He reappeared a few hundred yards away. Grimmjow was waiting for his with his wicked grin.

"What are you still carrying that corpse around for? Crush his soul and eat him before more of his power leaks out." The hollow set its jaws to work but not before Grimmjow slugged him in the gut and knocked his prize out of him. "Don't use your body, what a damn waste of time. Use your spirit. You might not get to taste his blood but it will go a damn sight faster."

The hollow noted that Grimmjow was standing between him and his meal, so he didn't have much of a choice. Grimmjow didn't seem to want to kill him, and if he changed his mind there wasn't much the hollow could do to stop him. So it was best to do what he said. The hollow focused on its desired meal and tried to think of a way to break it. Reluctantly he turned to its memory for idea. He then remembered how Grimmjows power had fallen on him when he first appeared, perhaps he could do the same.

The hollow calmed itself, breath out, and then tensed up focusing on the Fisher's corpse, surging his power out and trying to beat it down. Within seconds the Fisher dissolved into thin black wisps of smoke the circled around the ground. The hollow inhaled and pulled the smoke into him. As he did his body swelled in size, his thin figured bulked up with well defined muscles as his shoulders broadened considerably. Grimmjow dropped his smile to a smirk but somehow he seemed much more eager and pleased.

"You're a fast learner, I'll give you that. Now let's see how you fight!" He screamed and drove a kick into the hollow's side. It hurt like hell. It sent him flying far into the air, and back into the sights of the Gillian who hadn't forgotten him yet. Ceros exploded and Grimmjow was now above him.

The hollow flashed below with his new sonido. When the worst of the ceros had passed he surged through their tail back at Grimmjow and clawed at his face. His claws almost broke when they hit him, and Grimmjow swiftly returned the blow to his face.

"What the hell kind of attack was that?" Grimmjow demanded to know, disappointed that his face hadn't been ripped off. "What happened to the fury that you lashed out at the Fisher with? Just because you don't have a history with me doesn't give you an excused to lessen up."

Grimmjow materialized in front of the hollow with an opened hand. For a moment terrible noise erupted through the world around them. It sounded like a scream of young wife watching her children burn. It was followed by an unspeakable silence as red light poured into Grimmjow's hand and solidified into a ball. Grimmjow spoke filling the void with the erratic sound of his over excited voice.

"This is hell! You have to remember that always. You are here because of what you suffered in life, and you have to remember every last moment of it. All that you ever suffered through, all the suffering you ever caused someone else, all the suffering the souls that you are digesting even now. Take it along with all the hatred you have ever felt, all the hatred you have ever inspired, all the fury that your instinct could ever muster and bring it together. Once you have, you have to hold it. Build it up till it's about to burst, till it goes horse from screaming at you. Then you release it.

"Remember how the world abandoned you to be here. Remember how no one came to save you. Remember how everything you had was stolen from you. Remember every indignity the world has ever made you suffer. Then you can return the favor. You have power now, power born from what the world made you suffer, but you will show it. You will shock it. You will burn it. Come at me and reduce this world to nothing. Reduce the whole world to zero!"

His words resonated with the hollow's soul, conjuring up images of his family, of his friends, of everything he had lost. Then he remembered the one thing he was about to lose. He remembered the black haired girl. More importantly, he remembered that tall proud Death God who had stolen her. Who even now was waiting for a chance to execute her. He could barely hold the power back.

Grimmjow fired his cero as he saw the hollow began to glow with a strange energy. Around him was a shining white layer, like an armor protecting him, but beyond that black power seemed to rise above him like fire of darkness. The hollow couldn't concentrate that power, but he didn't need to. The hollow smashed the cero aside and lunged at Grimmjow. This time Grimmjow dodged the blow allowing it to slam into the side of a stone tree that all but disintegrated beneath the blow.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Grimmjow laughed while screaming at the sight of the power his new friend could wield. "This is awesome. I don't know what you have suffered but I love its effect. You learn so quickly! You wield such power! It's amazing! It's wondrous! But it's still not enough! You could be one of the most powerful hollows to ever walk this desert! But you will need more, and I will give you more! You need to suffer more, so I will torture you! You need to hate more, so I will enrage you! You need more souls to concentrate your power, so I will feed you! From now on, you're mine to screw and teach! When I'm done this world will rue the day you met up with someone like me. And then we will have such have awesome fight together."

End


	5. Chapter 5 The Lust

Chapter 5: The Lust.

'Good gods of hell this hurt,' The hollow thought to itself as Grimmjow slipped around his guard yet again and punched him in the chest. The pain was down to a dull ache by now, but it was still there, and the hollow was certain that this was from a general loss of feeling. Still he reacted quickly enough and paid his teacher back for the blow. He still wasn't sure why all of this pain was worth it; he didn't really know why he hadn't bolted yet or escaped to the living world. But he knew it was. Somehow, this constant fighting was right; he knew that the pain was making him stronger. He knew that the pain would eventually help him complete his goal. He rather hated that knowledge.

He hated Grimmjow too. He hated that constant smug grin, that wild laugh he released whenever the hollow got a good hit in. He really hated just how much his teacher was enjoying his suffering. Yet he was also strangely grateful.

It was all that voice's fault. It was the oldest and the strongest voice inside of him, and there were dozens of voices in him now, but it was also the most insane. The voice had no instincts, and what it had instead of instincts really annoyed the hollow. The voice had direction, it had a goal, it had a purpose. The voice saw that this pain served that purpose and was hell bent on enduring the pain to attain that purpose. It made no bloody sense at all. Yet the hollow rather enjoyed it. Not the pain, the hollow had sworn that the moment it was strong enough it would kill Grimmjow, but it loved having a purpose, even if it still wasn't certain what that purpose was.

Grimmjow kicked him down into the sand with a quick painful crack to accompany it. The hollow struggled to get up, but most of his body forbid him from doing so. Grimmjow looked down on him, his grin vanishing for the first time in hours. He spit with a sigh and a curse and then landed next to the hollow.

"That was good enough for now. Take a break." Grimmjow said as he sonidoed away. The hollow collapsed to the ground and gather his energy around his ribs, after a short time the pain subsided. He didn't know how that worked, he knew it was one of his hollow powers but it was strange. He knew how all of his other powers worked, he often had to think about how to do them and use them, but this one came so naturally to him it took no effort at all.

A few moments later, Grimmjow returned holding the broken body of a lesser hollow that he threw it at his students feet. The hollow didn't have to be told; he straightened up and bit into it. Grimmjow allowed him to actually eat his prey between 'sessions,' any other time the hollow had to break its prey with his energy and absorb them. Grimmjow leaned up against a nearby tree and watched his student eat.

"You know," He said, "You are one fast little bugger aren't you? I mean: I am a lot faster than you, and to be honest so are most Gillian, but you learn really quickly. All hollows learn about themselves quickly, because their instincts already understand everything there is to know about themselves; but you actually learn things. You've been studying my style, copying some moves and adjusting others to better resist me. A normal hollow shouldn't be able to do that. But you almost do it naturally. Makes me wonder."

The hollow remained silent as he listened to Grimmjow rant away. It didn't really matter to him, most of the time. But this seemed important, the hollow paused while it ate to consider what he had heard.

"Do you have any memories?" Grimmjow asked, as he saw the hollow thinking, something none but the oldest hollow could actually do.

"Too… Many…." The hollow responded in a deep raspy voice.

"I don't, too many to chose from I guess."

"Were you going…. To be a Gillian?"

"Probably, I must've gained dominance in that body accidently."

"Will I…. Forget then?"

"Depends, some hollows don't even become Gillian, the go through a proto-Menos stage with all the power of a Gillian but none of numerous minds vying for dominance. Then they become Adjuchas, I thinks that the path that you're on. Once you get there, I'll get a friend of mine to make you into an Arrancar, and then we'll be in business."

"Our great….Fight?"

"It will be awesome." Grimmjow concluded, his smile returning along with that perpetual look of lust in his eyes. The hollow quickly crushed and absorbed the remainder of its meal and took up a defensive stance, just in time from Grimmjow to sock him in the gut.

Skip

In the real world the desert landscape underneath Urahara's shop shuddered. The dust cleared just long enough for Urahara to burst away from it with Inoue and Chad hot on his tail. His sword was drawn and his hand was holding tight to his head as they closed in. Chad's right arm was covered in a bright red armor with black and white streaks running down it. On his shoulder what looked like a wide arrow head opened up and revealed bright blue fire glowing in it. Inoue didn't look any different at all, but six golden lights danced circles around her. One of them rushed forward at Urahara forcing him to slice at it with his sword. He caught it, but just barely, it twisted around him and came back at him from behind. He turned to face it and defended himself again, this time with red light bleeding off of his sword mixing with the golden light exploding from the attacker. Meanwhile two other lights rushed towards him, taking place above and below Urahara who cursed at the sight of them. Light poured from one to the other, and soon he was encapsulated in the light. He struck at the light with his sword but it held him in place while Chad rushed forward. White fire ran down his arm and into his fist, before he took another step it looked like he was holding a comet in his right hand. He punched at Urahara while the golden light around him vanished and there was a massive explosion.

Ishida looked on in awe as the dust settled. Chad and Inoue were using their powers to perfectly cooperate with each other. It was quite a sight to behold. Urahara hadn't been struck down by the blow, but the red shield he summoned to block the strike was cracking around the edges and his hat was nowhere to be seen. Ishida doubted the hat still existed in this world.

"Very impressive." Urahara complimented Chad and Inoue, "Chad provides massive but unwieldy and slightly clumsy power that Inoue protects and balances with swift moving flexible techniques. I wouldn't expect anything less from Yoruichi's students."

"Thank you." The black cat answered; a fact which continued to creep Ishida out.

"It's too bad Ichigo couldn't be here to see it." Inoue lamented as Chad nodded.

"He'll appreciate the help when you join him in Soul Society tomorrow." Urahara responded without an instant of hesitation. Ishida was rather suspicious of this story about Ichigo, that he had already made the trip; Ishida was probably just being paranoid though.

"Why aren't we joining him today again?" Ishida asked in a skeptical voice.

"I need another day to gather then energy needed. Don't worry Ishida; there will still be plenty of time to fight Death Gods. For now, this is all we can do to prepare. Go home; enjoy yourself for the next day. Allay any suspicion or fear the Kurosaki's might have about their son, then come back here. Get plenty of rest, tomorrow you will all be involved in the greatest battle of your lives."

Skip

"You know, sometimes I wonder why I even bother." Ikkaku said to his partner as the rain poured down on them on the side of the building.

"Sometime I wonder why you do as well." His partner responded while trying to take shelter from the rain underneath them. "I told you that we should've gone back to Soul Society days ago. But you were so damn certain that this hollow would show up and the two of you would have an amazing battle."

"We will have an amazing battle, when he gets here." Ikkaku said strengthening his resolve.

"When exactly will that be? I don't intend to spend the rest of my career sitting here in the rain."

"I'll give him another day or so. After that, I will never forgive him."

"Poor him."

Skip

"Sometimes I wonder why you even bother." Grimmjow declared as he held the hollow in a headlock and pressed him into the sand beneath them.

"For moments like this!" The hollow declared in a much higher, more erratic voice than what he normally used when speaking. Grimmjow noted how the hollow seemed completely different when fighting. While he noted that, the hollow wrapped its tail around Grimmjow's leg and pulled down trying to dislocate it. Realizing what was happening, Grimmjow leapt up and backwards. The hollow launched right after him.

The hollow gathered all the energy and rage he could into his claws and drove his fist right into Grimmjow's gut. Just as the blow connected, the hollow released the energy destroying the spiritual particle around his target allowing him to hit Grimmjow flesh directly. Grimmjow doubled over under the blow, lost his wind and began to fall to the ground. Normally this would kill him, because the other hollow would follow up on the attack with all its might, but the hollow hesitated.

"Again!" He ordered from the air while Grimmjow regained his breath. When he had he smiled like a Cheshire Cat and sonidoed in behind him with a punch in motion. The hollow turned and caught the blow and threw one of his own. Grimmjow blocked it, turned his momentum and swung a kick. The hollow caught the kick with his clawed feet, stood up on that leg and kicked at Grimmjow's head. Grimmjow snapped his head to the side, grabbed the leg passing by him and twisted his body to send his free leg at his enemies chest, who caught it with his hands. The two struggled for a moment and then sonidoed away from one another. An instant later they returned to the exchange of blows.

The exchange continued for an hour or two, both warriors supported by their demonic stamina. Neither could really gain an advantage over the other. The hollow knew that this wasn't the absolute truth, he sensed that Grimmjow was holding back. Even then the hollow was taking a few more hits than his teacher was, but he was improving. He could feel new strength growing in him, and he was getting a few hits in himself. He also knew that Grimmjow was slowly stepping up the pressure, given enough time he would be fighting Grimmjow on equal terms. Long before them they stopped to take a break. This time the hollow was told to find his own food while Grimmjow did the same.

Killing another hollow was unbelievably easy. Far easier than it had been when he hunted them in the living world, or when the Fisher's elite came after him. He appeared in front of a hollow that caught his eye, ripped off one of its arms, grabbed by the throat and carried it back. Grimmjow had caught a meal of his own and they both settled down to enjoy the meal.

"So," Grimmjow said after a while, "What exactly are you fighting for? I mean, any other hollow would've either died, run away, or tried to provoke me into killing it dozens of hours ago. You've just kept at me, quietly working all this time. I know there's some purpose driving you, so what the hell is it?"

"Well…. there's this….girl." The hollow said; its slower deliberate style of speech returning.

"Must be one hell of a broad. Is it your sister? Wife then?"

"No….Savior."

"Well she sure screwed up somewhere along the line if you ended up here."

"She's going….to die."

"Don't tell me that you're feeling guilty? That would really make you an unique hollow."

"No…I…I want her." The hollow said, choking on the words as they left his mouth. He went silent for some time as if pondering the words carefully.

"I need her." He said, his voice accelerating and raising in pitch.

"I will have her!" He cried, his voice more erratic, insane even.

"**They have no right to take her!"** He screamed, at least a dozen lesser voices joining him as echoes and shadows.

"**I WILL HAVE HER BACK COME HELL OR HEAVEN TO STOP ME!"** He roared, his power surging and the sand shaking beneath them, as if to prove his challenge to the world.

"_**!"**_ He thundered for an even minute; cracking trees, setting all hollows with in miles to their heels, turning the heads of the menos and making the entire living world hold its breath.

Grimmjow smiled. In the living world Ikkaku broke out in a cold sweat and almost fell off the building. Inoue turned over in her sleep and began to shake as nightmare invaded her dream. Chad felt it, he was already awake. He gazed into the night sky and prayed that he was feeling it from Soul Society, despite how it felt. Urahara also smiled as the hair stood up on Yoruichi's back.

"Feel that my little kitty." Urahara teased as Yoruichi glared at him. "Even I couldn't have made Mr. Kurosaki that powerful. This will all work out in the end."

"Hopefully the cure isn't work than the ailment." Yoruichi warned.

End.


	6. Chapter 6 Invasion

Chapter 6: Invasion.

Grimmjow looked on his student with some slight discomfort and pure joy. On the one hand the thought of fighting someone who get this fired up over something as unimportant as some woman ignited the fury in his own soul. But on the other hand, he knew in the back of his mind that this would spoil their inevitable fight. When they fought he wanted this hollows undivided attention something that could never happen so long as he was lusting after some girl. In a sense Grimmjow was rather jealous. Fortunately, for this case, he was willing to be patient as well.

"So what the hell are you waiting around here for?" He asked the hollow when it finished shaking the very foundation of the world around them. The hollow breathed deeply and quickly for some time trying to calm down and regain its composure. Grimmjow continued, to make the silence slightly less awkward. "You're fighting on par with an Arrancar, and a rather powerful one at that, if I do say so myself. I seriously doubt whoever took her from you has the power to keep you away now. Who took her anyway?"

The hollow remained quiet and pensive for a short time. He still didn't really consider these memories to be his own, and he was hesitant to search them. But he did know that these impulses and feelings he felt at the thought to the black haired girl were coming from the deepest parts of his soul. He would have her; that much was certain.

"Soul….Society." He finally answered in his calmer slower voice.

"What?" Grimmjow said, a little taken back. "Did they rescue her from you or something?"

"No…. They kidnapped her." The hollow answered and then he told Grimmjow his story. Or at least, he told him a story, he still didn't think it was his. He told Grimmjow that he had been a human who could see ghosts and that one night he had been attacked by hollow. He told him about how the black haired girl had shown up to save him and had been horribly injured trying to protect him. He told him about he had become a Death God to save them both and his family. He told him about all the adventures fighting hollows and saving his friends he had had with the black haired girl. Then he told him about the horrible night when warriors from Soul Society, the girl's own brother, had come to arrest her. He told him how he had almost died that night and how soon; the black haired girl would be put to death for saving his life.

The story took a rather long time to tell. It was a long enough story as it was made all the longer by the hollow's erratic manner of speech. Grimmjow remained quiet throughout it. When it finally ended, hours later he thought about all he had heard for a moment, and then burst out laughing. The hollow glared at him.

"And here I thought you were just some poor shmuck who was unlucky enough to get caught up in a battle between hollows and Death Gods. But you are something else. You've been a Death God and were cut down for it. Now you're coming back as a hollow. That's real cosmic irony right there. Still, you must be nuts to do this."

The hollow rose up on its legs and tensed every muscle in its body, growled and dared Grimmjow to explain why that was so. Grimmjow just smiled at the sight of such antagonism. In the privacy of his mind, he thought that this crazy bastard might just pull it off.

"Soul Society is the home of the vast bulk of all people who have died. That is an insane number of people. Millions of them are then gathered as Death Gods who spend decades sharpening their skills in constant battle. They all live in a massive, damn near impenetrable fortress. They are led by twenty six of the most powerful people in the whole damn universe. People, even I wouldn't challenge lightly. And you want to take them all one, to save a girl: who has spent decades being taught that beings like you should be killed on sight and has been preparing to do so?"

"She…Will…Be…Mine!"

"That almost sounds believable." Grimmjow finished with a smile. "But you can't do it as you are now. If you really want to take on all of Soul Society, you're going to have to learn a bit about yourself."

Grimmjow stood up and took off into the air. The hollow followed him preparing for an attack that seemed inevitable. It never came. Grimmjow simply took him up to the tallest branch of a massive tree. They were higher up than the hollow had ever gone on by himself. They were so high up that he could see the great sand ceiling that separated the hollow forest from the great desert of the Adjunchas.

"When Death Gods, and humans fight," Grimmjow began to explain after he took a seat on a branch. "They use weapons and magic spells to empower themselves. This focuses their destructive potential making them stronger, but it also makes them reliant on their weapon, which weakens them. Hollows don't need to pervert ourselves with such things, but we do need the focus such weapons provide. Instead of using machinery and weaponry, hollows use biological changes to our bodies. Even our ceros are partially alive.

"Your body already knows what weapons would serve it best, and given enough power it will manifest them. To gain the power you must learn how to dominate the souls that you have consumed. At the moment you can absorb power from your meals like a land lord collecting rent, but you can do better than that. If you break the lingering wills of the souls you have consumed you can fully manipulate them. You can force those souls to sacrifice themselves as a cero blast, you specialize them into power plants, and you can give them free reign over part of your body to transform it into a specialized weapon. This way you can gain the power of a Death God's Soul Slayer without having to rely on an actual weapon.

"I can't teach you to wield those special powers. Your own body will develop them when you need them and not before. But it can't reveal those powers till you have tamed the souls within you."

"How?" The hollow asked.

"Simple, you have to go to sleep."

"Sleep?" The hollow repeated, a little hazy on the subject.

"Normally, hollows don't sleep, so this might hurt a bit."

With that Grimmjow drew his sword and spoke harshly to it. "Grind…" The hollow never heard the rest, as his words were drowned by a sudden explosion of smoke and power. The next thing the hollow saw was what looked like a big cat's paw rushing towards his face then it all went black.

Skip

In the living world three projectiles went flying out of a small humble shop across the sky. They twisted about the air and quickly made their way over to three humble houses with open windows. A few minutes later Inoue, Chad and Ishida gathered at the entrance of the Urahara shop. Inoue and Chad were wearing their casual day to day clothes. Ishida wore a white suit complete with gloves and a cape. Yoruichi was waiting for them.

The black cat nodded to them and led them inside the shop in somber silence. When they got all the way down to the large desert training area beneath the shop where they were warmly greeted by Urahara himself. He then snapped his fingers and caused four stone pillars to snap together forming a large square behind him.

"This will be your gate to Soul Society." He explained, "Normally only Death Gods and pluses can make the trip guided by a hell butterfly. To turn you all into pluses we would have to kill you all and leave your bodies behind. This gate will transform you bodies into spirit particles and allow you to make the trip. Once I open it I can only keep it open for a very short amount of time so please move quickly. Don't touch the walls and pray that the janitors have already come and gone."

"Have you heard anything from Ichigo?" Chad asked.

"I have as a matter of fact." Urahara declared, while Ishida asked himself how anyone as un-resourceful as Ichigo could've gotten his hands on a means of communicating between the world of the dead and living. "He has already infiltrated the court of pure souls by disguising himself as a Death God stationed there. He's currently looking information about where Rukia is being held as well as a way to sneak you all past the main gate."

"Tell him he doesn't have to worry about that." Yoruichi stated, shocking the others. "I already know a sure way of getting into Soul Society."

"If you use the way I think your thinking off you won't be able to easily meat up with Mr. Kurosaki."

"That probably doesn't matter." Ishida declared, knowing that they might not meat Ichigo over there at all at this rate. "Once things get serious I'm certain we can just follow the trail of destruction to reach him. Besides its more important that he finds out where Rukai is being held."

"A wise suggestion Mr. Ishida. Now if you all could get ready and I will open the gateway." They prepared, and the gate opened.

Skip

There was a heavy fog here. He stood up and felt very strange. He felt vulnerable, exposed and weak. He felt his face, there was no mask there. He felt his chest, it was whole. So he was himself again? He laughed at himself and looked around. He was standing on the side of a building. The building was cracked and overgrown with strange vines. As he stood up he saw a lake in front of him and behind him was the sky, dark and overcast with thick black clouds.

"This place sure has gone downhill." He said to himself in a voice that sounded almost alien.

"Not really, when the king changes its only natural that the world should change with it." A more high pitched, erratic voice answered him. He looked and he saw a version of himself that had gone through a negative filter. Its skin was white, not light tan like Europeans have, but as white as a sheet of paper. His teeth were black and his eyes were golden. He seemed alien, but at the same time, strangely familiar.

"You're my instincts right?" He asked his ghost self.

"More or less."

"I don't suppose you have a name?"

"Why would I need one? I know who I am and so do you."

"I guess that's true."

"Yeah you guess. Just like you guess that it would be a good idea to rescue that girl."

"What do you mean?"

"I thought stopping you from meeting him would make this world mine, but you're still king for some reason. I can't stand it. Here I am, eating souls, getting stronger, keeping us alive, and you go and throw us from one dangerous situation after another. You made us fight that Shinigami, instead of running. You made us kill that hollow, instead of escaping. And you made us train under that sadistic bastard instead of killing him when we had the chance. And why do you make us do all this? To save some girl who will probably try and kill us when you're done."

"Everything I have asked you to do has made us stronger. Am I really such a bad king?"

"You're not the only one any more though."

"For now."

"What makes you think I'm going to let you kill them, and not simply empower them, or myself to replace you?"

"Simple, you don't really want to rule. You're my instincts. You want control to protect us, and to be honest, I don't really care if you keep it. But you don't want to actually be in charge."

"Why not?"

"What would you do with it? Eat humans and run through the desert? We may die doing what I ask, but I know you won't let that happen, and at the end of it all we will be much more powerful."

"And what would you do with that power?"

"Not sure yet, maybe well slay the moon and slice up the heavens. Who cares? We'll burn that bridge when we cross it."

"Hmph." The golden eyed creature smirked to itself, "So, what are you here to do?"

"What any good king should do. Crush some rebels and feed my horse."

"Fine. Go ahead. They're in the water over there."

"What underneath it?"

"Don't worry, I won't let you drown. Unless you lose."

With that he jumped off the side of the building and gravity was kind enough to take him into the water. He could breathe in it, and so could all the souls around him. They were practically faceless and formless. Vaguely human shaped grey blobs. They had no eyes but they did have mouths, screaming mouths. Some were larger than others. Some were chained together; he guessed these were the hollows he had been eating. He cracked his neck and knuckles and took a deep breath. Then he got to work.

It wasn't fighting. The souls around him could barely move in the water. They were weak and slow and their bodies were weak and fragile. He crushed them easily enough. Smashed some and snapped others into pieces. When he did their bodies would break apart and dissolve into the water. The more he broke the stronger he felt. No matter how many hundreds came after him, he kept it up quite easily. Before long their ranks began to thin and they started to flee from him.

He didn't let them escape. He shot through the water with his sonido and continued the slaughter. After a short time he had to leap quite far to find anyone to break. Still he felt great power remaining in the water around him. He followed it to the source. Despite how closely he paid attention to the energy, it still got the drop on him.

It was very large, twice his size at least. It had several other souls chained closely around it. It had a face, but not a notable one. It was losing its power and identity in this water just like the others, but it was still holding together well enough. It grabbed him by the leg and slammed him into the side of a building. It then rushed forward and punched him in the gut. He had the wind knocked out of him, and then it threw him down to the ocean floor at its feet.

It stood on his chest like it was trying to hold him down and drown him. But it wasn't working. It wasn't heavy enough to keep him from breathing and the water still offered his lungs little trouble. He calmed down from the initial surprise and grabbed his foe's leg and whipped him off.

"You're the grand fisher aren't you?" He asked.

"I was- no I am and you killed me!" It answered.

"Yeah I did, ate you too while I was at it."

"Of all the indignity, you will pay for this! I will kill you and become the king of your body!"

"Is that what he told you?"

"Who?" The fisher inquired with a confused look on its half face.

"The instincts- I mean the white guy on the building up there."

"What makes you think I have a partner?"

"When we fought in Heuco Mundo, I defeated you rather easily. Something must have changed if you think you can beat me in my own world after so much of your power has drained."

"I don't need anyone's help to defeat a pathetic little worm like you."

"I bet you thought the same thing in the living world; right up till I cut through you."

"What are you talking about?"

"You mean you don't remember me? I'll give you a hint, you killed my mother."

The fisher paused and thought about this for a while. Then his half formed eyes lit up in realization. "You're that-"

"Yes I am."

"Good gods of hell." The hollow gasped.

"Yeah, so that means that you are never going to get out of here. I will never forgive you for what you did, and I will never cease to torment you for it." He concluded, rushed forward and ripped the fishers head off. He then swung down with his other hand and cleaved what was left of that body in two.

"That was easy enough." He remarked as he turned on the floor of the sea. He knew that all of the human souls that had been here were now gone, but he sense something else. There was still great power in this water that he didn't control. So he followed it to see what was down here.

After a short burst of speed he came to a door. It was large and heavy and well sealed. It was it designed to hold something in; not keep someone out, so it opened easily enough. On the other side, he saw a body in the distance. It had long dark hair, and seemed to be wearing a black cloak of some kind. It was chained to the walls, and its hands were tightly bound. It looked up at him, but before their eyes could meet, someone grabbed him from behind. It was his negative self.

"Not so quick there partner, you're not ready to meat something like him. What you've done today is good enough. So you can head back now."

He blacked out at those words. As the darkness closed in he turned away from that black smile back at the prisoner. He felt like he should know him for some reason. He didn't know why, but he really wanted to meet that man in the black cloak. Maybe next time.

Skip

Ikkaku and his partner were now standing on the top of the building that had so diligently guarded for at least eight days now. Eight long boring, hollow free uneventful days. Eight days that they would rather forget happened at all.

"We should've done this ages ago." The elegant Shinigami declared to Ikkaku.

"I know I know, enough already. We're going now though; so shut your trap already."

"Hurry up and open the gate already!"

"I would if you will just shut up already." Ikkaku ordered as he thrust his sword into the air before him, ordered it to open and turned his sword sideways. Nothing happen.

"Well what are you waiting for?"

"It's not working."

"What do you mean it's not working?"

"The door won't open."

"Try again." He did, and nothing changed. The other Death God tried with his own sword, which didn't work either. "What the hell is going on?" He demanded to know.

"Wait a minute." Ikkaku said, causing his partner to pause mid panic. "I think I remember someone saying something like 'seal all the portals so they can't get back,' when I called Soul Society last week."

"WHAT!"

"Yeah I'm pretty sure someone said that in the background."

"Quick try our squad portal!"

"That's the one I tried already."

"Well try some other squad's gate."

"I don't know any codes to the others."

"You mean that were stuck here in the living world?"

"That's what they're trying to do."

"Ye gods! I don't want to spend the rest of my life out here without proper hair conditioner!"

"Don't blow your top just yet. I know a secret way back into Soul Society."

"What? Why do you know a secret way back in?"

"Everyone should know a secret way into Soul Society, what if hollows ever took over and forced us to mount a counter attack from the living world?"

"I think we would be up a -t creek without a paddle."

"Besides that I mean. Anyway, back in my home neighborhood there was this crazy medium. He would make the trip over from time to time trying to get in contact with the dead ancestors of his clients. All us kids living back there made friends with him and he taught me the spell to open up the portal if we ever wanted to get back there."

"Ikkaku,"

"Yes?"

"Didn't you live in the sixty ninth southern district of the Court of Wandering souls?"

"Yeah and your point is?"

"That's a five day walk back to the Court of Pure Souls!

"I'm sure we can find some conditioner for you on the way."

"Yes but not my brand!"

Skip

The hollow's muscles jerked into life after an hour or two of sleep. Grimmjow had returned to his normal form and was watching over his apprentice like a mother hawk over her eggs. Red and black lines of power radiated out of it, and Grimmjow smiled when he felt how malevolent and aggressive the energy was. The power continued to leak out till finally the hollow's body exploded in a burst of darkness.

When the shadows cleared the hollow was standing up. The hollow looked only slightly different. The entire right half of his mask was covered in black and red lines and marks. His teeth were sharper and better defined, more like fangs than human teeth. Black and red lines ran down his arms to cuffs of orange hair around his hands. His shoulders were much broader and the spikes on his black were longer and more noticeable. His tail now had a red tip to it.

The power was quite different though. It was both subtler and more noticeable at once. His power was no longer pounding and constant. But it was also much more sinister and forceful. One could completely fail to feel such power, till it was right in front of them. Then it couldn't possibly be ignored. Grimmjow loved it and burst out in a wide smile and erratic laugh at the sight of him.

"Now that is a proper transformation. No beating around the bush. No flashy wasteful, vulnerable body parts. Just what you need to be efficient in fighting and killing. I love it. Now about those powers of yours. All we have to do is beat them out of you!"

The hollow returned Grimmjow's smile at the thought, Grimmjow wasn't even certain how it was possible to smile with teeth like that but this just made all the better. They rushed each other, claws and fists at the ready. But at the last possible moment the hollow fell back. Grimmjow halted at the sight of such uncharacteristic hesitation. Then he paid attention to the world as well and felt it. Someone was trying to force their way into Soul Society.

"Friends of yours?" He asked. The hollow took off in the direction of the disturbance. Grimmjow grabbed him before he got too far.

"Their already long gone friend," He explained, "Besides, there's a janitor in that portal, they might not even make it at all."

"I have to go!" The hollow declared in its erratic powerful voice, trying to tear itself free of Grimmjow's grip.

"Why? You've still got several more days till the execution, who cares what fools like that do to themselves?"

"I DO!"

"Maybe I won't let you?" Grimmjow suggested, and just barely managed to dodge the claws reaching for his eyes. But before the hollow could get much farther the energy vanished.

"See? They're already gone, or dead, it doesn't really matter. Now then let's—" Before he could finish another idiot tried to force their way into Soul Society, and the hollow was already moving to intercept it.

"Of for the love of—"Grimmjow started as the hollow took off, "You need more time!"

"I don't have any! I will make do with what I've got." The hollow answered. Grimmjow stopped and smiled as he remembered that this was exactly what he loved about this little bugger.

"Fine then!" He called out after him as he sonidoed to his side, "at least take this with you." He added as he set his hand on the back of the hollow's neck causing a burning sensation to erupt.

"I've got some friends over there in Soul Society; this mark will let them know not to kill you. If you live though this come and see me, maybe even bring that stupid chick so I can see what all the fuss is about."

The hollow nodded. He dug his hand into the air before him and tore open a portal into the portal to Soul Society. All around him purple walls were closing in. Up ahead he could see two men making their way towards a bright light. Just before a wall swallowed him up he took off at his highest speed and crossed though the light well ahead of the two who had opened the portal, and entered Soul Society.

End


	7. Chapter 7 The First Skirmish

_Note: The English language and I have a love hate relationship. On the one hand, I hate all of its crazy rules and obsession over 'correct,' spelling. On the other hand, it is my native tongue and I do prefer it to other languages. So I'm only calling things, soul slayers, attacks, techniques, ect. By their Japanese and or Spanish names once. After that we're going with the loose English translation (Provided in parentheses such as this). _

Chapter 7: The First Skirmish.

Ikkaku had forgotten just how hectic crossing the gap between Soul Society and the earth could be without a hell butterfly to guide them. They were lucky though that a janitor didn't try to sweep them away. Funny, that was one of the things he had been looking forward to, today was the day they were scheduled to run after all. It seemed like this was going to be a boring end to a rather boring day. Then that thing burst past him.

He felt it enter the portal just a few moments before rushing ahead him. He had no clue where it could've come from, but he soon saw where it was going. All he could see of it was a white blur. He almost stumbled, but quickly regained his composure and took off after it. He had no idea what it could be, but he had his hopes.

Ikkaku made his way out of the portal a few seconds after that thing did. It was already gone, and so was everyone else. The whole district was quiet. This was strange, wrong even. He was getting excited. He grabbed his sword and did a quick inspection of his surroundings. There was blood on the side of a wall nearby. He smiled, his blood started to boil. All the signs were adding up, this was going to be a good day after all.

He rushed after the blood trail. He ducked around a nearby corner and looked about again. There was blood on a door across the street and he could hear a woman sobbing. He crossed the door and followed the scent of blood to the next street. Then he saw it.

"Lucky." He said, and drew his sword. At the sound of metal sliding across his sheath, the beast turned to face him, dropping the bloody corpse it had been carrying.

"You're a bit larger than we were told." Ikkaku complimented, as he took his sword in one hand and held it before him while he held the sheath in the other behind him. "You're also very late. Don't worry about it though; soon you won't have to worry about any other appointments, ever."

"Name…" The hollow growled.

"Madarame Ikkaku, The Eleventh Squad's Third Seat." Ikkaku said when the hollow paused.

"…It…" The hollow finished, ignoring what Ikkaku had just said.

"What?"

"Name… Your… Sword…" The hollow slowly chanted.

Ikkaku smiled and thought to himself, 'this little bugger has fought Death Gods before.' Then he added aloud, "No."

The hollow growled deeply, Ikkaku could hear all the human souls around them, watching from the shadows and their houses, shudder. It was angry at the thought of not getting to fight his soul slayer. This was exciting.

"If I use my soul slayer then the two of us will have to fight at full strength from the get go, one of us will prove to be stronger and the fight will end. It will be more fun if we take this slowly and build up to the climax."

The hollow recognized Ikkaku's eyes; the madness in them was only a few steps removed from his teacher's. He had no time for this. The hollow turned and walked away towards the massive tower in the distance. Ikkaku was stunned.

"Hey! Hey! Where are you going? Your foe is right here! Don't turn your back on me!" He shouted as he leapt into the air, raised his sword and came down at the hollow. When he was still a few feet away from his target; the world turned sideways. He could feel claws pressing against the side of his head. He looked from the corner of his eye and saw that the hollow had grabbed him with its feet. The claws released a fraction of a second before he hit the ground, and an instant later he bounced off the ground, ever so slightly. When he reached the apex of that bounce, the hollow snap-kicked him and sent him flying into the side of a building.

"NAME IT!" The hollow screamed as Ikkaku broke through the wooden wall, shattering it and sending many splinters flying around him and into his arms and back. He struggled to get back up, he was bleeding from a half dozen places and his ears were ringing. Still he held on to his sword and smiled.

"MAKE ME!" He cried back and charged.

The hollow kicked at his head again, but this time he was ready for the speed that the damn thing moved at. He brought the sheath in his left hand forward and blocked the blow. The force of it stunned him; he had to shift his footing to keep from being knocked over. Once steadied, he lunged with his sword at the hollow's leg; he snapped his leg back and met the sword with his knee. A moment before the blade cut into its flesh energy surged around the hollow and canceled out the motion of the sword.

Ikkaku twisted on his legs and brought his sword back down with a wide slash at the hollow's chest. The hollow stepped back to avoid the hit. An instant later he stepped forward again and clawed at Ikkaku's face. He jerked his head to the side to avoid losing his eyes, taking a cut to the forehead instead. He flipped the sheath around in his hand and pulled it into the hollows back, holding him in place while he slashed at his head. The hollow broke free, but not without taking a gash of his own.

Ikkaku reclaimed his old stance, sword forward, sheath behind him. Ready to attack or defend in an aggressive manner. The hollow stood a few yards away with his hands at his side. He had no stance, but he did have good footing. This hollow was used to fighting on instinct, Ikkaku surmised, he could dodge, but he didn't know how he did it. He smiled and popped off the bottom of his sword's handle.

"That's a pretty open stance you have there." He said as he touched a cream set in the bottom of his swords handle and swiped it across the gash on his head, stopping the bleeding. "Head wounds never really close up and they can blind you, can really afford a seconds hesitation against me when were this close?"

The hollow watched him curiously as a bead of blood made its way down the eye holes in its mask. The hollow wiped the blood away, and the wound was closed up. Ikkaku watched and realized that this thing could use high speed regeneration. He thought for just a moment that this was cheating. Then the hollow vanished again with a slight thump and appeared right in front of him, inside his guard. The hollow grabbed his outstretched arm, wrapped it up with his own and smiled.

"Do you think the distance really matters?" He demanded to know, and then kicked Ikkaku in the chest. It was a Greco-Roman lunge kick, designed to shatter iron shields. Ikkaku's ribs didn't stand a chance, three of them at least broke beneath the hit, and his arm was pulled from its socket. That could have ended his life and their fight, but the hollow let go and let him step backwards, struggling to keep the screams of pain within.

"Name it!" The hollow ordered once more. Ikkaku grabbed his dislocated arm and forced it back in place. He coughed up a bit of blood, but his smile never faded.

"You are one tricky little son of a bi—" He coughed up more blood before he could finish. "Fine then! Grow: Hozukimaru! (Demon Light)" As the words left his mouth he brought the front of his sheath up to the handle of the sword and held them like they were a single tool. As he did a grey whirlwind erupted around the weapon and hid it from the hollow's sight. When the winds subsided the sword had been replaced with a long tan Yari spear with red tassels on its end.

Ikkaku held the spear proudly, his smile as bright as ever and wounds and pain forgotten. The hollow was taken by surprise not expecting such a drastic change in the weapon. Yet the smell hadn't changed, this was a Soul Slayer in all of its glory, if he could crush this one he could crush any of them. The hollow returned Ikkaku smile and leapt forward in a sonic burst.

Ikkaku also vanished in a flash just before the hollow reappeared behind him. Ikkaku took a stance right in front of the hollow and jabbed at his face with his spear. The hollow jerked his head to the side and rushed straight ahead with its claws ready to strike either at his foe's head or chest.

"I'll admit I've never seen a hollow who can move like you can!" Ikkaku cried as he fell back and spun his spear around to drive the hollow's hands away from his body. "But You're not the only one who can move in unexpected ways! I can Flash Step!"

Ikkaku vanished with his last words and reappeared right behind his enemy, already in mid swing. The hollow turned and moved towards the attack as he did, catching the blade on the arm rather than on the back. The spear's head left a deep cut and set the blood rushing from his arm. The hollow ignored the wound and the pain and moved in for an attack of his own. He threw his wounded arm backwards to move the bladed part of the spear as far away from him as possible and turned his body to punch with his good arm.

"And my Demon Light can extend." Ikkaku all but whispered as his spear broke into three separate pieces linking by long chains. With an expert flick of the wrist he brought the bladed section of the spear back around at the hollow's back. The hollow leapt into the air to avoid being hit twisting about as it did. Ikkaku didn't waste the chance, but grabbed the back end of his spear and threw it at where the hollow would land, catching him in the gut. The hollow was knocked further back by the blow, and bent slightly.

Ikkaku held his three part spear by the middle part and spun the two ends around him like a helicopter blade. Faster and faster they moved till they were all a blur and the hollow couldn't tell which was which. Then Ikkaku attacked, he grabbed one end and spun the other at the hollow. Unable to tell whether it was the bladed or the tasseled end coming at him, the hollow jumped to the side. It had been the tasseled end, and Ikkaku lunged at him with the bladed end. The hollow blocked with its wounded arm and taking another deep gash to it, but he swung a punch at Ikkaku's open body, catching him in the shoulder and cracking a bone.

Ikkaku flicked his weapon once again and brought the solid end back around and hit the hollow in the back of the head. He fell, and as he did, his foe recombined his weapon and swung down at the hollow's back. He leapt away and only took a light cut to the back this time. Still Ikkaku pursued him; swinging his weapon around and around, swiping at the hollow with blade and butt.

As more of the instincts attention was focused on Ikkaku, more and more of the souls that had been subdued regained their voice. They cried out in fear and hatred, filling the hollow's inner world with a great cacophony. Some wanted to die, some wanted to be free, some simply saw a chance to gain a little power at the expense of everything. The first voice was strangely silent.

This didn't seem right to him. He wanted to crush the power of the Soul Society, but for some reason, to fight a soul slayer like this seemed wrong. He wasn't sure how to react. He was so troubled that he didn't hear the chaos rising around him. Then he felt his inner world shake as his outer body was hit once more.

"We're losing." The instincts admitted when the first voice looked up.

"We might soon be free!" A voice declared from below.

"We're going to die!" One said joyously, while others wailed in fear of death.

"This is the end for you boy," The last remnants of the Grand Fisher announced quietly, "All your power and this is where it gets you. To think I was consumed by this."

At the fisher's words the thought occurred to the first voice that if this kept up he would never see that black haired girl again. For the first time, since becoming a hollow, the first voice faced a legitimate chance of dying. That didn't frighten him, but the thought of failing did.

"I WON'T LOSE!" He declared drowning out the other voices, with such power that the words were carried out his inner world and into the mouth of the hollow. Power followed those words, power the coated the hollow's body in a faint white light; and soon that power radiated off of his arms in dark black lines. As the words passed his lips he brought his teeth down and caught the butt of his enemies' spear in his mouth.

The tasseled end of the spear shattered under the force of the teeth set in that mask, those the mask also cracked under the power that drove it. For the first time, Ikkaku's smile left him, now he was seeing the hollow at full force, and wasn't certain that this would be as fun as he had hoped. The hollow leapt at him, like a tiger at its prey. Ikkaku brought the two remaining sections of his spear back together and lunged at the hollow.

Bright white light gathered around the hollow's hands and it drove one of the forward as his enemy, his claws and fingers held together like a karate chop but moving straight ahead. Claws met blade. The blade shattered, the wood behind it spit, the chain at the end all but exploded and the flesh of Ikkaku's shoulder offered about as much resistance as tissue paper. The hollow plunged his whole hand down into Ikkaku, he could all but touch his foe's heart deep within. Then he pulled back and let the blood flow. Ikkaku fell to his knees before his enemy.

"IKKAKU!" His companion cried drawing his sword and leaping down the street. The hollow glared at him but made no attempt to move. Ikkaku threw the remnants of his sword as his friend.

"Yumichika! Don't you dare interrupt this!" Ikkaku ordered, Yumichika froze in his tracks. "Run."

"No I won't leave you like this!"

"Get out of here! It would kill you effortlessly! Don't waste my life as well as yours! Get back to the Court, tell everyone what you saw!"

Pain covered his friends face at those words, but it was the pain of knowing the right thing to do, and being unwilling to do it. Finally he nodded and turned to leave.

"And Yumichika?" Ikkaku asked with the last of strength, as the hollow grabbed him and lifted him up off the ground and level with his face.

"What?"

"Tell the Captain, I found a good prey for him." Then he turned to the hollow and with his one good hand grabbed at the hollow's throat in one last suborn and futile act of defiance.

"What are you waiting for you over-glorified skeletal zombie? I can still fight! Let's finish this!" And with that the hollow bit down on his unwounded shoulder, and Ikkaku blacked out from pain.

Skip

Far away within the high towers of the Court of Pure Souls, the center of Soul Society and barracks of all Death Gods, an old man took a seat. He was a very old man. His head was bald and he had a long white beard. His weathered eyes lazily closed as he rested for just a moment. Despite their relaxed appearance his old muscles held great power within them. This was no ordinary old man, he was the Captain Commander of the Thirteen Court Guard. He was the most powerful man in all of Soul Society, and the most powerful to ever live within the last thousand years. He was getting old for this job. But there was no one strong enough to replace him. Yet.

There were a few men he had his hopes for. Two of them had been like sons to him, and had attained great power without being swallowed up by it. Yet they had been with him for hundreds of years now, their growth had long since stalled out. Now he had to look to a younger generation to provide the leadership for tomorrow. He had his hopes there as well. There was the latest captain he had approved to the guard, Toshiro Histugiya. The heads of the academy called him a genius and his Soul Slayer was the most powerful ice type of this age, and one of the strongest to ever exist at all. He looked barely older than twelve, yet he already had more than enough power to be named a captain. It would be interesting to see how he grew up. The commander would have to pay careful attention, otherwise he would miss it.

As he considered these things, there was a knock at the door. He nodded in that direction and it soon slid aside. The man standing behind was quite handsome. He had a kind face, with light, brown hair and soft eyes: hidden behind simple glasses. He wore a captain's cloak and held himself quite well in it. This was one of the other men that the Captain had high hopes for: Senoske Aizen.

Aizen was one of the strongest men to come to Soul Society in quite some time. He had already been with them for over a hundred years and held the rank of captain for eighty of them. His growth when young had been explosive and impressive, yet had seemed to mellow out lately. Still, the commander often wondered what it would take to defeat someone like him in battle. He nodded to him ever so slightly to recognize him, Aizen returned the bow but with greater respect.

"What brings you here to the First Squad barracks Captain Aizen?" The commander asked in well weathered, patient voice.

"I thought I felt something strange in the air and wanted to check if another captain had felt it, your barracks was closest. I hope I am not interrupting anything." Aizen answered in a lighter more hopeful and enthusiastic voice.

"My squadron runs itself quite well, Aizen, there is little I really have to do in a day. What was it exactly that you felt?"

"I'm not certain; it seemed like a deep sense of foreboding or dread. I guess you didn't feel it did you?"

"I felt nothing of the sort."

"Well it's probably nothing."

"I would not be so quick to judge, what's on your mind? Is something troubling you?"

"Am I that easy to read? Well I will admit I am troubled about this case with the Kuchikis."

"Are you worried about the coming execution?"

"Not as such, the execution itself seems strange to me. Why is a common Death God being killed in a means reserved for Captains?"

"She is a noble."

"An adopted sister of a noble, and there are other unusual things as well. Why such a short grace period? Twenty five days is hardly the custom? Why death for an offence typically punished with a few decades in prison? It all seems quite strange to me."

"Do you question the wisdom of Central Room 46?" The commander asked in a voice that suggested Aizen was treading on thin ice.

"Not as such it's just that—" Before he could continue they were interrupted by a messenger at the door.

"What is it?" The Commander demanded to know.

"Captain Gin Ichimaru has reported that he has engaged and repulsed a group of intruders trying to force their way through the east gate!"

"The east gate?" Aizen asked, "Isn't that Jidombo's territory?"

"It is," The messenger answered, "They overpowered him!"

"I assume Gin has dealt with them?" The Commander asked.

"No he only repulsed their assault."

"The fool; how could a captain allow intruders to escape? I will have to deal with this in the next meeting."

"Did he provide any description of the intruders?" Aizen asked.

"He claims there were three of them: one Hispanic man, one Japanese man in a white and blue suit, and one girl with orange hair and Japanese complexion."

"Is that all?"

"He also says that there was a black cat with them."

"Oh yes, don't forget about the cat. Of all the insanity, trying to invade Soul Society with three kids and a cat." Aizen ridiculed, the Commander was inclined to agree. This only made Gin's failure all the more notable. The Commander paused to consider how best to deal with this when another messenger entered the room.

"SIR! Eleventh Squad's Fifth Seat Yumichika has just reported a hollow attacking the outer southern districts of the Court of Wandering Souls!"

"WHAT?"Aizen and the Commander chorused.

"He says that Madarame Ikkaku engaged the hollow in battle and was defeated, he is withdrawing from the area and awaiting orders."

"A hollow powerful enough to defeat a third seat? That is worrying." Aizen analyzed.

"True. Dispatch Captain Kenpachi Zaraki to the area along with a full attack force from the Eleventh Squad. Find and eliminate that hollow before it can harm the souls living there."

"Yes sir!" The messenger responded and left.

"What about the intruders!" The other messenger asked.

"Hardly consequential. Turn the matter over to the Tenth Squad and spread word of this hollow attack, we can deal with these intruders after we have weathered this crisis." The messenger nodded and left.

"Do you think it is right to call this a crisis? Its only one hollow after all."

"Hollow haven't attacked Soul Society in almost a thousand years, the last time any of them set foot here it was as the vanguard to a much larger army. Many lives were lost because of hesitation in those dark days. We will deal with this hollow as swiftly as possible and restore the peace."

"As wise and concise as ever Commander. I will go and prepare my Fifth Squad for battle."

"Good hunting Captain Aizen."

"Fair well Commander."

As Aizen left the room he thought over Gin's message. Something was off. Not by much he had to admit, but something was off. This might change things.

Skip

The hollow bit down into Ikkaku's remaining leg. Death Gods were surprisingly hard to eat. Their bodies couldn't be broken like a hollow's could with sheer spiritual pressure, and they couldn't be swallowed whole like humans were. Each part of their bodies had to be bitten and chewed individually by his jaws. It was tedious. But it was worth it.

The taste was unimaginable. There was so much variety to it! Some bites were sweet, others were salty, others were spicy. It was delicious. The blood itself could've been a meal on its own. And then there was the power!

As he ate all of Ikkaku's power flowed into to him. All the power and fury he had ever possessed, even the power of his Souls Slayer was now at the hollow's disposal. As he ate the wounds he had received in battle healed, his muscles tightened, and his claws sharpened. The power filled him like no hollow ever had. Despite the look of pure joy the dominated his face, the hollow's inner world was troubled.

"Are all our fights going to be this difficult?" The first voice asked the instincts, as they strangled and dispersed the soul of Ikkaku that had just entered him.

"Do you mean are all our fights going to be this amazing?"

"We came within a hair's breathed to death!"

"We didn't die. We won't. Don't tell me you're afraid?"

"Of death? Not really, but if these fights keep up like this it will take forever to rescue her."

"Sounds good to us. These fights really get our blood rushing, and they're making us so much stronger. Besides it's not like we can avoid them."

The first voice groaned. The instinct looked down on him. To be honest, this voice annoyed the hell out him. The world would be much simpler if he would just sit down and shut up. But the instincts had to admit, the voice made things more exciting.

"You have a better idea?" The instincts asked, not really expecting an answer.

"Do you remember how the fisher was going to turn that boy into a hollow?"

"No. If we're going to remember anything I use your memory."

"Do you think the Fisher remembers?"

"Probably, what are you suggesting?"

"Things might go faster with a good distraction."

"And miss all those fights? Why would we want to do that?"

"We want her as soon as possible."

"True," The instincts admitted with a sigh.

"Don't worry, this will be fun. Trust me."

End.


	8. Chapter 8: Total War

Chapter 8: Total War.

Soul Society is an unimaginably huge place. So large that defending it takes quite a bit of work. Merely getting the soldiers to the places were fighting has broken out takes no small amount of effort. Fortunately, this problem had been tackled by the science division quite a few years ago and they had come up with an effective solution: interdimensional portals. With a few minor adjustments they were able to use the same gates that transport Death Gods to the living world to teleport warriors to certain key points scattered throughout Soul Society.

By using this technology the Eleventh Squad was able to reach the sixty ninth southern district less than three hours after Ikkaku's death. But this was already much too late. The amount of destruction that greeted the first Death Gods through the portal was all but indescribable. Buildings were wrecked and crushed all about them. Several piles of ash and rubble still housed the dying flames that had ravaged them not to long ago. And there were bodies everywhere around them. Even the Eleventh Squad, whose members regularly got drunk on battle, violence and the thought of death, were shocked and appalled at the sight of what had happened there.

The call went back to Soul Society requesting a full contingent of the Fourth Squad's medical Core to come and help save the dying. They came quickly all under the leadership of the Fourth Squad's Seventh Seat Hanataro. Once a medical camp had been set up the leader of the Eleventh Squad arrived on scene.

Captain Zaraki Kenpachi was an imposing man to say the least. He stood almost seven feet tall dwarfing all of his own troops. His body was covered in old scares, most prominent of which was a long slash across his one good eye. His other eye was covered in a black eye patch and his hair was done up in several long spikes with bells attacked to the ends. But even those wild sights couldn't draw attention away from the demonic smile that almost always plastered his face.

The moment he arrived the bloodlust could be felt in the air. The man longed for war and violence, the sight of destruction around him only caused his blood to boil in anticipation of the coming fight. Far worse was the effect that his presence had on his men. Every one of them had now forgotten the destruction they had seen, and their minds were focused on the fight to come. All of them were ready to kill or to die, but either way, they were going to have fun doing it. After a few brief moments of men laughing quietly to themselves, and swords sliding in and out of their holster as they eagerly awaited a chance to cut and slice at something, anything; the captain spoke.

"Listen up." He said in a slow voice that grated across the ears like a rusty blade over an old rock. "I know you all are eager for a chance to fight, but whatever you do, don't kill that hollow. That thing has probably killed my third seat Ikkaku, I can't wait for a chance to fight something like that. So have all the fun you want, you can even die if you want to, but bring that hollow back to me, so we can all have a great time."

The men shouted and scattered. In truth, any speech at all could've sent them running like that. They didn't care about what was said, all they cared about was what they could do. And now they could have a good time. Far away from them all a pair of golden eyes watched the group scatter. One of those eyes longed for a chance to meet all those soldiers and kill them one by one. The other eye was too impatient, it wanted to get away from here already and be done with this nonsense. Both eyes did not like the look of that captain.

Skip

Hanataro set to work on the patient before him immediately. His hands moved furiously up and down the patient's body as he tried desperately to cheat death and preserve a life. The patient himself was a host of conundrums and inconsistencies. On the first hand, the wounds looked rather serious. There was a lot of blood and the patient was clearly in quite mind numbing pain. But on the other hand the wound itself wasn't that deep, and while there was a lot of blood loss there wasn't any serious damage. Yet on a third hand, and this worried Hanataro since he was running out of hands, no matter what he did the patient didn't seem to be recovering.

He concluded that there must something deeper going on here. He ran a full medical scan of the victim, which revealed nothing he couldn't already see. Then he ran an intensive scan of a blood sample, but it couldn't find any signs of parasites or viruses. He was stumped; there shouldn't be any reason why the patient wouldn't be healing right now. It was almost like something was destroying his body as quickly as Hanataro could repair it.

Acting on a hunch and a bad feeling, Hanataro whispered to his sword and allowed it to change shapes from a full sword to a small scalpel. He then cut down towards the heart. He didn't know why; but he could almost feel a subtle kind of evil radiating from the heart. He cut all the way down to the heart and peeled back the skin around it to take a good long look at it. Then he saw something. It was white and embedded into the heart. It was shaped like a tear drop. He carefully removed it, almost immediately the patient quieted down and his wounds began to close up.

'So this was the source of all that trouble.' Hanataro thought to himself. He looked it over very carefully; it looked and felt very familiar to him for some reason. He pricked it with the edge of his scalpel drawing out a small bead of purple liquid from within it. For a few moments he looked at it, and then it dawned on him, a second or two too late. Then a nearby patient exploded.

Skip

In the world of the living, a human soul is at great risk. It is, after all, a spiritual being in a physical world. Lost and isolated the soul under goes intense suffering brought on by its alienation and compounded by any unfulfilled dreams or social woes it may have left behind. This suffering can be alleviated in one of two ways. First is that the soul might be rescued by a Death God. Then it will be sent to the Soul Society, where other spiritual beings will be able to comfort and assist the recently dead and help it through its sorrow. The other thing that might happen is that the Soul may be consumed by a hollow. Then its suffering will all be lost as its very will and mind is absorbed by its attacker. The hollow will take on that suffering and compound it with its own suffering and all the suffering that it has ever inflicted on another.

If a human soul is denied one of these two succors it will only continue to suffer till at long last, in hatred of the world around it and fear of all those who inhabit it, the human will destroy its soul and remake it into a weapon. The human will become a hollow. In Soul Society this can still possibly happen, it usually doesn't though. Humans are naturally empathetic creatures and are all willing to assist each other, by shouldering one another burdens. Unless of course, an invading hollow refuses to play fair.

Hollows have suffered through greater pain than any human ever has, for if a human ever suffered like they did they too would become a hollow. And hollows are the authors of great crimes against numerous other human beings. Worse still, they absorb the suffering of their victims when they consume them. Thus, in many ways, hollows are a kind of incubator for pain and torment. And if a hollow ever allowed a human spirit, no matter its location, to feel even an ounce or an iota of the pain that they carry, that human spirit would have little to choice but to undergo a similar transformation to shoulder that burden.

Or in short: Hollowfication can be rather infectious.

Skip.

It didn't take that long for the Eleventh Squad to find the hollow. It had, after all, left them a very nice trail of bodies to follow. However, those that did find the hollow weren't exactly the lucky ones. The hollow was acting under the assumption that all Death Gods were as strong as Ikkaku, so when it was attacked, it held nothing back. It was quite some time before any of the groups that found the hollow lived long enough to report their findings.

Thus it was almost two hours had passed before Captain Kenpachi was informed that his prey was waiting for him to the north. He smiled wickedly, he had been getting bored. He was so excited at the news that he barely noticed the curdling screams that cut the message off as the hollow caught up to the informant.

"All Right!" He cried in anticipation of the upcoming fight. "Wait a minute, which way is north again?"

"It's that way Ken-Chan." A small pink haired girl, who had been riding on Kenpachi's back said to him. She was pointing east.

"Are you sure?" He asked to double check.

"Yeah I can fell the hollow's energy coming from that direction!" She reassured him, her hand slipping slightly so that she was now pointing south-east.

"Great even better! If even you can feel him than he must be something else!" Kenpachi exclaimed as he took off in almost the opposite direction that he should've. A few minutes later he received another message.

"What is it?" He screamed by means of a hell butterfly to Hanataro on the other end.

"Captain, the victims…." Hanatarou managed gasping for breath "…They're turning into hollows! It's a trap!"

The message was then cut off by a loud roar and a crashing noise nearby. The captain looked at a bloodied body nearby him. It didn't look like it was about to become a hollow. He tried sending messages to other members of his squad. Not many of them answered. Those that did, all he could hear was hooping, hollering and cries of war and battle.

"Damn it Yachiru!" He cried to the girl on his back, "Everyone is having a good time except me!"

No sooner did the words leave his mouth then a pair of broken bodies nearby him exploded in a cloud of dust. The dust swirled around in the air and eventually gathered in one place. From within the dust red eyes looked out at him in pure rage and fear. The captain smiled back at those eyes, this might just be a bit of fun after all.

Skip

The hollow made a mental note to stop listening to the first voice, as he slid his arm out of a Death God's chest. To err on the side of caution shouldn't be his style. Besides making all of these hollows and demi-hollows seemed to have been a giant waste of time. These Death Gods were pathetically easy to kill. Not that he was missing much; while their blood was sweet there was no strength in them worth taking. Compared to the sublime meal that Ikkaku had been, all of these warriors were trash. And furthermore, since none of these new born hollows could seriously fight, much less kill any of the Death Gods, the hollow might have to fight all these fools anyway.

He would admit though, that this plan made it unlikely that that one Death God would attack him. That one had death and madness in his eyes. Even at the distance the hollow was looking from, he could feel the killing intent radiating from this potential foe. It would be wrong to say that the instincts was afraid of the captain, but it would also be wrong to say that he was eager to fight him. The instincts knew its limits and that enemy was well beyond them, for now at least.

He didn't have to worry about that for now. The hollows around him were creating plenty of chaos, it should be quite unlikely that any other Death Gods would find him, he should be able to make his way north slowly but safely. Which he did, making a few more demi-hollows along the way, to slow down anyone who might be following him. Eventually the sound of battle grew dimmer and dimmer and he stopped wasting his blood on the humans cowering in their houses. Then he saw something that greatly perplexed him. It was getting darker. This was new.

The sun never rose in Hueco Mundo it was always dark there. He had assumed that it would always be bright here in Soul Society, Hueco Mundo's opposite. Now it was getting darker, that great ball of light in the distance was sinking down, how strange. His memories told him that the sun was setting and that soon all the humans around here would be going to sleep. His instincts laughed at the idea, why would anything ever need to sleep? How week could these strange creatures be? Then the thought dawned on him that if the Death Gods went to sleep as well it would become much safer to travel. He could travel much faster. So he took off with a sonido burst followed by a fast, but steady sprint.

Skip

By morning the ten available captains of the Thirteen Court Guard gathered at the First Squad's barracks for a meeting and an update on the battle around them. They were a curious group to be certain their looks ranged from giants to drunkards and Noh players. There were only two women amongst them, one of them looked very motherly, the other like a soulless serial killer, cold and uninterested in the world around her. One of them was quite handsome to be certain, he had long black hair with silver decorations set in it. His face was beautiful and in addition to his captain's cloak he wore a long white scarf.

Once they had all gathered and settled down, a strange other worldly looking purple device, with a screen in its middle was set up before them. A few moments later the screen sparked to life and the face of a young boy with silver hair appeared before them.

"Tenth Squad Captain Toshiro." The Captain Commander said to the boy on the screen, "Report."

"We've found the body of the East Gate Guard Jidombo. He's alive, and it appears that many of the wounds Captain Gin inflicted on him have been healed. I suspect that one of the intruders may have been responsible."

"What makes you think that?"

"If they did heal Jidumbo that would explain why the locals seem to have taken a liking to the intruders. They are unwilling to divulge any information on them and we have reason to believe that one of the community leaders gave them shelter last night. The leader is unwilling to tell us where the intruders were headed and I believe that extracting that information would take too long for it to be of any use. At any rate, the intruders seem to lack any hostile intent to the wandering souls here. I'm going to place a full guard around the east gate and return."

"Very good. Contact Captain Kenpachi." The Commander concluded, the screen flickered for a moment or two and then a man who most certainly wasn't captain Kenpachi appeared on it.

"Hantaro, what are you doing on the screen?" The motherly woman, Unohana Retsu who was captain of the Fourth Squad and head of the medical core, asked.

"Captain Kenpachi left late last night heading northward, he told a member of the Eleventh Squad to take this call, and they made me do it." Hantaro explained in a slightly whiny, slightly cheerful tone that suggested he was both displeased and used to this situation.

"Very well then, report please."

"The hollow that attacked hear has infected numerous human souls here with its blood; and transformed them into hollows. Fortunately the Eleventh Squad managed to contain the situation and save us from the people we had been helping. No one has reported seeing or killing the hollow that killed Ikkaku. Captain Kenpachi thinks that it most likely still alive so he took several elite members of his squad and headed north after it."

"Very good, take care of anyone who has been injured and return immediately."

"Yes Mam." And with that the screen went blank and it was taken away.

"Very well, this brings us to the real matter at hand." The Captain Commander declared, "To deal with and punish the failure of the Third Squad Captain Gin."

"Oh come on Captain is this all really necessary?" Ichimaru Gin quipped back.

"It is. Because of your incompetence we now have to deal with two threats instead of one. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Nothing really, I went to fight them and they just slipped away. Sorry I guess."

"That's not good enough," The Twelfth Squad Captain: Mayuri informed Gin, "You're a captain squashing insects like that shouldn't have been difficult, I think you let them go."

"That ain't true captain, they just got away that's all."

"I don't think such outlandish accusations are necessary, everyone makes mistakes after all." Eighth Squad Captain: Shunshei commented from under his straw hat.

"Only drunken womanizers like you make mistakes, real captains should never miss their targets." Second Squad Captain: Soifong, the colder of the two women, explained.

"We shouldn't be discussing this now though; we have enemies at the gate after all." Seventh Squad Captain, Komamura offered trying to make peace amongst the captain, from within his heavy helmet and visor.

"Justice must be executed my friend no matter the time or circumstance," The Sixth Squad's handsome captain, Byakuya Kuchki, declared in his monotonous voice.

"This bickering is not the path to peace my friends, let us allow justice to be done quickly and be done with it." Ninth Squad Captain Tosen said trying to calm the others down.

"Fellers this really isn't necessary, I made a mistake and I am willing to take any punishment this may have earned me." Gin said to end the arguing.

"True enough Gin," The Captain Commander agreed. "However I must agree with Komamura this is probably not the time to pass judgment. For now we will suspend it, but when this crisis has been dealt with you will be on probation. Now if there are no other topics of note I will dismiss you all to your respective duties."

"Hold on Captain," Fifth Squad Captain Aizen interrupted, "I still have some questions for the captain-" But before he could continue an alarm sounded. Two men immediately burst through the door.

"Commander!" The first declared, "A strange object has been detected hurtling through the air towards the Court has been detected. There's less than a few minutes till impact!"

"Commander!" The other shouted all but ignoring the man who had come before him, "Someone is forcing the southern gate open! We can't contact the Southern Guardian!"

"Impossible!" Mayuri declared, "No one is strong enough to force one of the gates open other than their guardians!"

"No human is strong enough." Byakuya countered, "It would appear that the hollow has avoided Kenpachi's squadron of meatheads. How surprising."

"We may soon be under attack." The Commander concluded. "All you should go immediately and prepare your squads for battle. We will soon be under attack on two fronts."

"Well perhaps not two," The Twelfth Squad Captain lectured, "The group coming from the sky should be smashed out of existence by the energy shield that the Seki Seki (Destruction.) Stone projects."

"There are ways to bypass that field." Byakuya countered once again.

"Oh, have been considering how to destroy destruction stone Byakuya? Maybe thinking of how to get into a certain prison perhaps?" Byakuya made no retort but simply vanished with a flash step. Mayuri smiled to himself as he made his way out of the barracks. Soon he would have access to such wondrous samples and subjects to work on. It's almost too bad that Kenpachi would slaughter that hollow, a chance to dissect anything that could life up the Court's gate would be a useful subject indeed. Perhaps instead he could get access to the corpse of the old gate guardian instead. Either way this would probably be a good day.

End.


	9. Chapter 9: Salvation 1: Escalation

_Note: Everyone give a big round of applause to Foonator. He's my new beta and hopefully should be raising the overall quality of these updates. Everyone who reads this story should also go out and read his story Two Tortured Souls. A solid Naruto fic. _

Chapter 9: Salvation

Round One: Escalation

The hollow had to admit, this was getting pretty annoying. That shouldn't even be possible, yet it was happening to him. He was getting bored of killing Death Gods. How the hell could that ever happen? He was a hollow he had two roles in life, to eat humans and kill Death Gods, how could the latter of two ever get old? The instincts weren't to certain; personally he blamed it on the mindless repetition of the fights. Take a few leaps forward, tackle some Death God, get back up, and slice his friend's throat open while driving his tail through the body of the one he had just knocked over. Lather, rinse, repeat. It was getting rather old.

Well it didn't help that all these Death Gods were fairly determined to die. All of them, and there were a lot of them, came charging right at him with swords raised above their heads exposing all the soft gooey bits of their bodies. It was almost too easy. That was probably the main problem. The hollows first fight again that Death Gods, what was his name again? Ikkaku? He had been sublime. It had been extremely hard, fast paced, he had nearly died, exactly what the hollow needed to really get his blood boiling. And all of these fights afterwards had been utter garbage compared to that one.

Still, he was making good progress. He had left the gate miles behind him and was getting closer and closer to the giant white tower that dominated Soul Society's skyline. The memories he had stolen from Ikkaku told him that any significant prisoner should be kept up in that tower while awaiting execution. The hollow was certain that the black haired girl fit into that category; after all, the hollow was interested in her. So he made his way towards that high tower in the distance. All he would have to do was reach it, steal the girl and make it back to Hueco Mundo. As to what would be done after that, he wasn't quite certain.

He knew he had to rescue that black haired girl. The first voice was very adamant about that. None of the other voice liked this thought that much they all wanted to run away from here and never look back. But they were broken shadows of their former selves, and they weren't too good to begin with. They were all weaker than the first voice, not nearly as interesting. The first voice had lost some points with the instincts for their stupid idea about creating all those demi-hollow to give them a chance to escape, though after the mindless grind the hollow had been through now, he was rethinking how helpful that plan must've been.

So the hollow was still willing to put up with the first voice and bring about its crazed desire to rescue the black haired girl. Though what they will do after that was a mystery. Not even the first voice knew what it wanted to do with her. The instincts agreed with Grimmjow that they would probably end up killing the black haired girl the moment they met and she attacked them. She was a Death God after all and wouldn't take kindly to seeing a hollow even if it had come to rescue her. He didn't mention this fact to the first voice though, it probably wouldn't end well.

Still, this was still enjoyable enough. As boring and repetitious as the fights might get, this one fact remained true and constant: a Death God's blood was a wondrous thing. The beauty of it flying through the air. The amazing sounds it made as it flew through the air. The intricate designs it painted on the ground. The warm and wonderful feel of it as it rained down on its body. The rich, dense smell. And above everything else, the taste. The delicious taste. It blew his mind to experience the incredible taste of such delectable blood. Even though the fight itself was a grind the hollow always looked forward to the next chance to see, to feel, to taste that marvelous blood.

As the hollow stood above a set of freshly made corpses and considering all this, it heard a strange noise. It leapt up on to a nearby wall and looked towards the source. Far in the distance, it saw the great wall of Soul Society open up at one point. Opening that wall on his own had been difficult but nearly as hard as he would have thought, all it required was enough brute strength. And now someone else was opening. The hollow glared in the direction of the wall and immediately felt the stare returned to him along with an unbelievable killing intent.

So that Death God had made it here as well? Not too surprising, he had left him a nice trail of bodies to follow. The memories with him told him the name of that Death God, Kenpachi Zaraki. He was a man of madness to be certain; as insane as Grimmjow, if not more so. The hollow doubted that this insane man would be willing to train him up to his level as the arrancar had. It would be wisest to avoid him for now.

Which shouldn't be too difficult, as the same memories that yielded the captain's name also testified that he had no sense of direction at all. And in a place like Soul Society that would be a problem. This place was designed to treat invaders more like minor annoyances than serious threats. It was painfully difficult to get anywhere except dead ends. Every corridor ended in a dead end, open court yard leading nowhere or right back where it had started. It was designed like one of the bad mazes on the back of a kid's placemat. As if Soul Society expected its invaders to get bored and go home after a few hours of that torment. The hollow simply knocked down or jumped over the walls in his way, he wondered if the Captain would do the same.

This time of introspection was interrupted by yet more Death Gods arriving to commit suicide at the hollow's hands. This group kept their swords down with their thick skulls exposed. The hollow was on top of them before the two in front even knew that it had noticed them. He grabbed their heads and yanked them forward so that he could rush past them and drive the claws of his foot into the warrior behind them. Once he had pulled a foot full of intestines from that victim he kicked off of his chest and flipped up into the air, pulling off the heads of his first two victims as he went. That wondrous blood filled the air and stunned the last two Death Gods just long enough for the hollow to make a wide slash through their bodies and finish that skirmish. He cleaned the blood from his claws and took off with a sonido towards that tower in the distance.

The moment he was gone a group of Fourth Squad members leapt into action. They had been trailing the hollow for some time now, leaving behind members to help the injured and comfort the dying. It was surprisingly safe to be behind the hollow so long as it was moving forward. There was nothing they could do for three of the Eleventh Squad members but the other two could still be saved. They drugged the first one who had been taken down to ease his passing and got to work. At this rate there wouldn't be much of a Eleventh Squad tomorrow, but that had to do what they could.

Skip

Seventh Squad Fourth Seat Jirobo and a handful of other seventh squad members rounded and corner and accelerated up the next corridor. "Are you sure this is the right way sir?" One of them called to the Fourth Seat as they advanced

"Of course I'm sure, that great light that broke through the shield landed somewhere around here. All those intruders must be close. If we capture them all, we'll be well rewarded." Jirobo replied, inwardly noting that his reward should be higher than any of theirs.

As they rounded another corner they spotted a figure in the distance. It was a tall Mexican looking man who was facing the other direction. The Death Gods smiled to themselves and charged as silently as possible intent on ending the fight in an instant. Just as the swung their swords at the tall man, a sweet female voice rang out.

"Santen Kesshun (Three Link Sacred Shield.)" as the voice faded a golden triangular shield appeared before the man and stopped all three of the swords coming towards him.

"What the hell?" Jirobo exclaimed from behind his companions, just as the Mexican man noticed them. As he looked his right arm was suddenly covered by red and black armor, and what looked like a large arrow head at the top of his arm opened and revealed a blue flame burning brightly.

"Ah, I didn't see them, thanks Inoue." The tall man responded and swung a punch at the startled warriors before him. Just before he did the golden shield disappeared. Then the world turned bright white, and when the light faded the Death Gods were nowhere to be seen and a deep trench had been dug into the ground.

"You really should pay closer attention Chad." A tall thin man commented.

"Of course, Ishida. I will be more careful in the future."

"YOU SHOULD BE MORE CAREFUL NOW!" A short large man dressed in green yelled at him from behind. "What if someone else heard that huge explosion? We could be under attack at any time now!"

"Don't worry, Ganju," Inoue assured him. "If anyone else attacks I'm sure we can handle it."

"That's a rather foolish thing to say," Jirobo announced as he made his way out from his hiding place, "considering your powers are no match for mine! Flap aboutTsunzakigarasu (Splitting crow). Look upon these many flying blades, no matter your power or how strong your shields you can't do anything against this kind of attack!..." He went on for a while.

"Inoue?"

"Yes, Ishida?"

"If I create an opening for you do you think you could take this guy down?"

"Sure, but if you can get past that attack why don't you take him down?"

"If I have to seriously fight a loser like this I'll end up doing things I can't be proud of," replied the Quincy as he formed a shining blue bow in his right hand.

"All right."

"…Now, the time for despair is over! Prepare to taste my most powerful atta-" Suddenly, there was a large flash as hundreds of blue beams of light obliterated each of the numerous blades in the air.

"Oh, I'm sorry were you not done yet?" Ishida asked with a slight smirk.

"Koten Zanshun! (Single Sacred Cutting Shield.) I Reject!" Inoue cried and fired a blast of golden light at the stunned Jirobo, catching him under the chin and knocking him out.

"Nice shot." Chad commented and the group walked on. Ganju lingered over the body of the Death Gods. He wasn't bleeding anywhere so the cutting shield hadn't actually cut him. Ganju shook his head, to have that kind of power without any killing intent.

"What kind of freaks am I traveling with?" Ganju asked himself.

"Thankfully, rather self-controlled ones." Yoruichi the cat commented to the wandering soul.

"What do you mean?"

"They are choosing their battles very carefully, making good progress and, aside from Chad, not making too much disturbance. We've been quite lucky not to attract too much attention so far."

"I've been wondering about that personally. Normally, at least one Death God will pop out of nowhere and chase if you break any rule in the outer courts. And after a flashy entrance like the one my sister made for us, I would've imagined we would be swarming with Death Gods the moment we landed. It's almost like they've got something better to be do right now."

"It almost sounds to me like you wish we were being attacked more often, Ganju." Ishida called back. "Maybe we should let you take on the next few to satisfy this thirst of yours for battle."

"I ain't complaining. It's just weird that's all. I keep expecting some huge army of soldiers to be waiting for us around every corner."

"Don't worry." Chad said, "Ichigo must be causing a few distractions to cover for us."

"Ah yes, this mystery fifth member you all keep talking about. I should've guessed." Ganju said in a skeptical tone.

"Don't worry; I can feel him from here." Chad said reassuringly. "He's raising some kind of hell to the south west of us." The others nodded at this statement, even Ganju could feel the power coming from that direction. This didn't reassure him though, so he slowly dropped back till only Yoruichi was in earshot.

"What is this Ichigo anyway?"

"He's a friend and ally from earth who came over first." The Black Cat answered.

"I didn't ask who, and asked what he is. Because whatever is 'raising some kind of hell' out there isn't a Death God, and it sure as hell isn't human."

Skip

"Captain Kenpachi has returned with the advanced guard of his Eleventh Squad, but he has yet to catch up with the hollow." First Squad LieutenantChojiro explained to all the other lieutenants gathered in the meeting room. "The Rest of the Eleventh Squad is trying to slow the hollow down long enough for the captain to engage him. They are failing. Almost seventy percent of the Eleventh Squad has been wiped out by the hollow. The death count is estimated in the upper thousands.

"This high casualty rate has not been helped by several teams of the Eleventh Squad engaging and being defeated by the intruders in the east district. For the most part, however, the hollow is responsible for the casualties. The Captain Commander fears that if this continues, the Eleventh Squad could be completely lost. He has therefore ordered that a force of reinforcements be sent to hold the line.

"Third Squad Lieutenant Kira, Fifth Squad Lieutenant Hinamori, and Sixth Squad Lieutenant Renji you all are hereby ordered to gather a force from your squads and engage and eliminate the hollow."

"Figures," Renji said with a smirk, "Sixth Squad gets all the dirty jobs these days."

"You all volunteered to capture the fugitive earlier in the month," Kira reminded his friend, "So there is no ground to complain about having to deal with this hollow as well."

"This will be just like our old days in the academy or when we were all in the Fifth Squad together." Hinamori remarked hopefully.

"Hey what's being done about those intruders anyway?" Renji continued largely ignoring his comrades.

"Captain Shunsui has volunteered to deal with them. Lieutenant Nanoa is accompanying him." Chojiro explained. "You all should get going."

"Don't worry about us. We'll be back in a few hours or so. This shouldn't take too long." Renji boasted.

"I wouldn't be so quick to declare victory," Kira commented as he left the room with the other two lieutenants. "This hollow has defeated almost half of the Eleventh Squad on its own. We'll need all the help we can get to coral it and subdue it."

"You're the one underestimating it Kira." Renji retorted.

"What do you mean?"

"This hollow has wiped out most of the Eleventh Squad the most trigger happy squadron of lunatics in the 13 court guard. They are also some of our best fighters out there. If they couldn't stop this damn thing, then asking other Death Gods to help us out is just begging to get them all killed. The only way we can take this thing down with adding to list of the dead is if we fight it ourselves."

"We don't know where it is though. , so we'll need help finding it."

"Any unranked Death God who fights that thing is going to die."

"So let's not let anyone fight it." Hinamori suggested.

"How?"

"We'll use Kido (Demon Magic) on it. That way we can control its movements from a distance and coral the hollow to a place where the three of us can move in for the kill. All the Eleventh Squad members who fought the hollow were injured by close quarter's weapons: its claws and teeth. If we have our subordinates attack it from far away they should be safe."

"Good idea, Hinamori, we'll need lots of warriors who are good at Demon Magic though." Kira congratulated.

"We'll also need a good plan and an easy way to coordinate all our movements." Renji noted.

"I'm sure if we put our heads together we can have everything we need to pull this off in no time." Hinamori said hopefully.

Skip

The first shot took the hollow by surprise. It was a simple binding art that pinned his feet and arms to a nearby wall. If he had been alert, he could've easily dodged it. The Death God who fired it immediately rushed in trying to finish the job. It was against his orders, but the hollow didn't know that. What he did know was that he had a tail and it was pointy at one end.

The Death God fell to the ground with a new hole in its side as the hollow smashed the building behind him and made his way away from there. There were two other Death Gods still in his way and they were mumbling to themselves. A moment later there was red and white fire gathering around their hands. The hollow searched his memory for any information on this. Ikkaku told him that this was call Demonic Arts magic that Ikkaku knew very little about and looked down on. But the first voice called up one of the hollow's earliest memories about Urahara firing a spell of some sort at him. The hollow sided with its own experience and dodged to the right.

Then the hollow sonidoed forward and caught the two Death Gods in the side with his claws and sent them down in a pool of blood. Before he had a chance to revel in the kill a few more leapt up onto a nearby wall and fired more of these Demonic Arts at him. The hollow was forced to retreat down one of the long corridors and quickly round a corner as another round hit.

"This could be problematic." The instincts admitted. "If we're going to have to chase down all of these bastards as they hammer at us from a distance this will take forever and these fights are annoying enough as they are."

"What do we do?" The first voice asked.

"I have an idea."

"What?"

"Nothing you have to worry about. Just take over here for a little while."

"WHAT! You want me in charge?"

"Just for a little while. Don't worry; we know what we're doing. Just get him close enough and muscles will do the rest." And with that the instincts stepped into the first voice and vanished.

'Well this was an interesting feeling.' The first voice noted as a mass of sensations bombarded him as he took control. 'And this is also interesting, I'm thinking about how I'm feeling.' The hollow thought. 'This is a good feeling,' they both agreed.

Then they were hit by a fire ball.

'This is now a bad feeling!' They moved quickly, leaping over a few walls and diving into some nearby shadows. As the Death Gods chasing them mounted the wall to get a good look at where they had gone the hollow pounced on them and removed their heads from their shoulders.

'Yeah! Take that!' the first voice thought as the blood flew through the air. And then he noted that there several dozen other Death Gods coming at him from the same direction with a wide variety of spells charged and ready. The hollow took off to the north. Fire and lighting rained down around him, but the hollow dodged, ducked, dipped, dived, and dodged through the barrage. Occasionally he turned down random corners and double backed, catching a few Death Gods by surprise, but he wasn't able to kill many of them. He was still making good progress to the north; so long as he eventually reached that tall white tower, little else mattered.

Skip

"Target is moving north through sector b7 and is showing no signs of turning." A Death God reported by a Hell Butterfly to all the others around him.

"Kira here, I'm hot on the targets trail, five minutes out and closing."

"This is Hinamori, I've got three teams in place and I'm moving to intercept. Hold on. I see him now. Damn he's fast. He got past me, but I'm in hot pursuit. Where are you Renji?"

"I'm at the main steps to access the central citadel," came the reply.

"Why are you there?" she queried.

"Guys I think the hollow is heading straight here. I can feel it; this thing is coming this way. If I hold here, he's going to come to me."

"How can you be sure? Why would a hollow want to go to the citadel? Doesn't it know what kind of people live there? It's practically suicide."

"Nothing this hollow has done makes any sense at all, Hinamori, but this is where it's headed. If you call off your squads and come alone, you and I can take this thing down without putting anyone else at risk."

"Alright then. Kira, get over here and give us a hand. We're going to stop this thing once and for all."

"I'm right behind you, Hinamori."

Skip

The hollow made its way to the base of the citadel very quickly. Once the Death Gods stopped firing at him and attacking him, he started making great time. The fact that they had all stopped attacking him at once made him slightly suspicious, but he was getting so close to actually rescuing the black haired girl that any negative thoughts in his mind were ignored. He rounded the corner to the final open area before the citadel itself and saw one warrior standing comfortably on the steps to the fortress. There was no way around him, so the hollow charged him with a quick sonido.

He was stopped. The Death God caught his lunge with his sword and stopped his claws mere inches from vital parts of his chest. The hollow was taken aback and stopped for a moment to consider the Death God before him. He was slightly shorter than the hollow with spiky red hair and intricate tattoos over his eyes. He was wearing a pair of sunglasses on his head. He was smiling at the sight of an attack that had almost killed him. There was something very familiar about him, but the hollow wasn't quite sure what.

"Yo!" The Death God greeted. "You sure are eager to get started. I haven't even introduced myself and you're already attacking me. I'm Renji Abarai Lieutenant of the Sixth Squad. That means I'm the second strongest man in the Sixth Squad. I'm also a good friend of a man you killed so I am going to really enjoy killing you."

"Name it." The hollow growled as it heard all of this. Renji's name conjured up memories stolen from Ikkaku, he was strong. This should be a good fight.

"I just did," Renji replied.

"Name your sword."

"Why?" Renji said with a raised eyebrow.

"I will crush all you Death Gods when you are at your strongest. So name your sword and I will break it and you."

"You are one nasty little bastard, you know that?" Renji asked as he flipped his blade outward and knocked the hollow backwards. He then covered his sword's base with his hand and ran it up the sword as he spoke. "Howl Zabimaru! (Snake Tail.)"

As he did the sword glowed red and changed. It grew thicker and longer. The black blunt side of the sword grew very wide and the sharpened end segments into six parts each one defined by a long fang like edge coming out of it. The front of the sword was blunt. He swung forward and as he did his sword elongated and launched at the hollow. Each segment seemed to be held together by set of steal wires and cables. The sword extended far and hit the hollow easily driving him over a hundred feet back into a nearby building.

"Is that all you've got?" Renji called into the new pile of rubble. In side of it the hollow sniffed at his new wound before it closed up. He recognized that smell. The hollow may not have recognized the warrior but he knew the smell and he knew that blade. This was one of the two warriors who had stolen the black haired girl from. This was one of the people responsible for stealing everything from him. This was a man who had to die.

Renji was calmly advancing on the hollow when it burst from the house. He had never seen a hollow move like that and he partially caught by surprise. He just barely managed to raise his blade to block the oncoming kick aimed at his head. The force of the blow was staggering, but it knocked him back far enough to give him the distance he needed. The swung down and let his blade extend. The hollow leapt to the side to dodge. He moved forward slightly, but then Renji brought his sword back around from the side. The hollow ducked the strike and then leapt backwards as a third attack came down at his head. As Renji retracted the blade, the hollow jumped at him with claws bared. Renji leapt to the left and avoided a fatal blow. He swung at the hollow with an unextended sword. It rolled away from the strike unharmed.

Renji followed up on the attack, letting Zabimaru fly at the hollow, this time his foe clawed at the tip and knocked it to the ground. The hollow jumped on the blade, pinning it in place, and ran up the extended steel at Renji. In a moment he was at the hilt ready to lash at Renji's head. Hinamori chose that moment to take the stage.

"Snap Tobiume! (Flying Plum Tree)" She ordered and as she did her sword change in mid swing. It lost the curve of a katana and gained several tuning fork like prongs extending from the sides of the sword. As she swung the blade erupted in red fire and let lose a large blast of flame at the hollow. The hollow jumped back at the last moment to avoid being incinerated. As he did Renji retrieved his sword and joined the attack.

For a moment the hollow was on the ropes. He was forced to dance about back and forth, dodging fire and sword strikes alike. He couldn't get close enough to counter attack. If he had given ground and fallen back into the maze of fortress around him, he might be able to hide and catch one of them by surprise. But he doubted that they would fall for such a ploy and refused to give up when he was this close to the black haired girl.

"Hey, I'm back." The instincts suddenly announced; taking the first voice by such surprise that he almost got hit by that snake tail again.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"Saving us," the instincts answered smugly.

"How?"

"By making this." The instincts said as they held up what looked like a hand guard made of pure light.

"What is it?"

"It was about thirty souls. Here try it on." The first voice wrapped the light around his arms.

"It feels good." He acknowledged.

"I know."

"How do we use it?"

"Like this, it's all in the wrists." The instincts said as it stood behind the first voice and grabbed his hands with his own.

Renji swung his snake tail once more at the hollow trying to knock it down so that Hinamori could fry it. But just before he hit his mark, the hollow caught the blade in its hand. He staggered backwards under the blow but he still held on to the head of the sword. Renji swore that he saw the hollow smile for just a moment as white light erupted from its arm and it pushed the sword forward. When it did, that white light around its arm exploded and a massive light grey liquid fired towards Renji. It was as large as he was; it had a mouth and teeth. It was flying right at him down the length of his sword. Before he could react, the mouth bit down on his arm. Bones and tendons snapped under its bight and Renji felt pain like he had never know before. For a moment his spirit was pulled from his body and joined with the hollow, but he refused to be consumed and pulled away from the bight. As he did the great mouth twisted to the side and ripped his arm off.

Hinamori screamed, which only served to alert the hollow to her presence. He snapped his hand out of the grey worm creature he had created and threw a punch at Hinamori, as he did another long grey mouth flew at her. She held her sword up and kept those large teeth from bighting down on her. Then the hollow appeared right next to her and the teeth were still bighting her sword. To block one would expose herself to the other. Before she could make a choice, the hollow kicked her and sent her flying.

"Raise your head! Wabisuke (Wretched one)" Kira called out as he too joined the fray. His sword curved its head around taking the form of a hangman's stand. The hollow side stepped his blow and turned to strike at him. Kira blocked the strike and lashed out at the hollow. They exchanged blows for five hits and then gave ground to each other. As they did the hollow bent to its knees.

"Surprised? Wabisuke has the power to double the weight of anything it hits. You now weigh sixty four times what you did when we first met. You will bow before me and pay for what you have done."

The hollow did nothing but glare at his foes. Then he summoned energy and light to his arms and shot two liquid mouths into the ground and launched himself up into the air. More than a few hundred feet above Kira he broke free from them and fell. As he fell he pushed of the air and sonidoed at his enemy. Kira was taken surprise by this move and could do nothing more than raise up his sword to resist the attack. As the two met, the earth around them shattered. A moment later they both fell. The hollow's attack had opened up a way into the sewers and supply routes that crisscrossed the court. Kira looked at his sword just to see broken into; he attempted to move only to discover that several of his bones were in a similar condition. He then looked about. The hollow's arms were cracked, pieces breaking off in several places. They began healing a moment later. It glared at him briefly before vanishing down a nearby tunnel.

A few moments later several Death Gods descended into the catacombs and surrounded him. They helped him up and asked him for orders. A few of them started looking down the tunnels where the hollow must have gone.

"Don't go after him!" Kira ordered startling the warriors carrying him out.

"Why not?" spoke one of the Death Gods. "It must be injured."

"This creature is well beyond any of your capabilities. Even if it is injured, it will kill if you're lucky, and devour if you're not," Kira replied grimly.

"Then what should we do? That thing will attack again once it's recovered."

"That thing is one of the greatest monsters to ever come out of Hueco Mundo. It's time that it met one the greatest monsters to come out of Soul Society. Go find Captain Kenpachi. Tell him that the hollow should try to climb these steps sometime tomorrow. If he waits at the top, he will find his prey."

End

_Note: damn that was a long chapter. I hope it satisfied the lot of you, because it might be a while before I get the next one posted._


	10. Chapter 9 Salvation 2: Revelation

_I would like to take a moment and thank all the people who Favorited and reviewed this story during its extended hiatus. If were not for you all sending constant reminders to my email address I probably would've completely forgotten about this. _

Chapter 9: Salvation

Round 2: Revelation.

The darkness encompassed everything. There was no light, no sight and few sounds in the depths where the hollow laid down and licked his wounds. The crash had crushed his bones and he had been cut in several places by the Death Gods. Worse still, the lesser wounds he had taken while advancing through the court were opening back up as his attention was diverted to healing the more serious injuries. Even a Death God would've needed months to recover from such a devastating battle, and anyone else would never had recovered at all.

The hollow was almost done though. His powered poured through his body as a he willed himself healthy. He gathered the souls he had consumed and transformed several of them into bone and flesh to replace what he could not re-grow. Most of his major injuries were already healed, taking care of all the lesser ones would take time, but that was all. In an hour or two he would be back on his feet. While he waited for his body to put itself back into good order he brooded over the event of the day.

"Well, I think that went rather well." The instincts surmised to the voice who was sitting silently on the side of a building. He had been there so long that the vines were climbing over his legs. "All things considered."

"You damn near left us to die out there." The voice answered.

"But you didn't and were both stronger for it."

"I suppose, that still could've gone better if you ask me."

"I didn't," the instincts scoffed. "Besides, we lived and hundreds of Death Gods didn't, how is that not a victory?"

"That red haired one got away, I need to kill him."

"You ripped his arm off, that's good enough."

"Not while he's still breathing. Once we're healed we need to find him and rip him to pieces." The voice demanded.

The instincts smiled, though he knew better. "Hey I'm all for random violence, but don't we have something better to do?"

"Just barely." The voice admitted, "I'm surprised to hear that you care at all. Are finally willing to admit that we're doing the right thing?"

"Not on our life," The instincts objected, "This is still badly thought out, absurdly dangerous, and grossly short sighted. You're lucky I'm having so much fun right now, or else we would be out of here."

"Lucky me. Are we ready for some more fun yet?"

"Just about."

"Well then what are we waiting for?"

The hollow was up in a flash and out of the tunnel second later. The court yard where they had fought before was deserted, there was no sign of any of the bodies of the Death Gods he had slain, though the area was still wrecked from the fighting. The hollow sniffed the air to be sure he was alone and once satisfied that he was he took off towards the tower in the distance. Ikkaku's memories guided him to a long stair case that ran up the side of the central keep. The hollow was up them in a flash, taking the massive steps in long strides he reached the top and the citadel itself in seconds.

He almost regretted the speed he had used to climb, it meant that he ran into the pressure at the top like a wall. He was almost knocked back and off the stairs by it. The spiritual energy that greeted him was vast and overwhelming like stepping out into the bottom the ocean, yet was also sharp and made the hollow clutch his throat to make sure there wasn't a blade against it. Then a moment later he felt those eyes.

They cut through the pressure around the hollow as easily as they cut through the hollow himself, and gazed into his very soul. Those eyes saw in him a madness that was almost a mirror image of the madness in them. And those eyes were filled with madness. They radiated insanity, aggression, and lust. But the hollow was no stranger to such eyes, Grimmjow had an identical pair, and the hollow had seen these eyes once before when he first entered this god forsaken place.

For a second the hollow considered his chances of escape, echoes of the souls he had consumed demanded that he flee from such eyes. But the hollow ignored those old dead souls, he could see there was no escape from that gaze, and truth be told, he didn't want to. The voice had respected and even admired Grimmjow and what he had done for him, but the instincts had hated that sadistic old bastard. And now that chance had appeared to beat the living hell out of someone just like their old master, the instincts couldn't have been happier.

The eyes were not hard to miss even in the midst of this overwhelming pressure. It only took the hollow a moment to find their source, and another one to leap there with a quick sonido. The owner of the eyes was sitting on top of one the tall buildings that turned the citadel into a huge maze of alley ways and dead ends. Even sitting down he was a mountain of a man, with a cut across one eye and a patch across the other. His hair was done up in several spikes that were tipped with small golden bells, and he was already smiling.

He turned to greet the hollow and stood up. He was about as tall as the hollow, and therefore would've dwarfed most men. His smile grew all the larger as he slowly drew his sword from his side. It was a long blade, clearly meant as a two handed sword, though the man only held it in one. The blade itself was chipped and ragged, it looked like it was serrated, but the rust on the edges told a different story. The man held the blade before him with the tip pointed at the hollow. Then he spoke.

"My name is Zaraki Kenpachi. I'm the strongest man in all of soul society. Ikkaku died because of you, so this better be one hell of a fight."

Skip

On the other side of the citadel, Inoue, Chad, Ganju and Ishida were also making their way into the inner court. They were all now dressed in black though, and they had picked up young Hanataro who was desperately trying to keep up with them as they climbed the ridiculously long stair case that stood in their way.

"Do you think it was a good idea to leave the cat behind to deal with that captain?" Ganju asked as they climbed.

"He was very insistent that we run from that fight." Ishida answered. "And with good reason, that drunkard was a lot stronger than you might have guessed.

"Besides, I'm certain that Yoruichi can handle himself." Inoue reassured.

"Of course I can." The black cat added as she dropped back down to join the group. "Don't worry about the captain, he'll never catch up to us now. Where did you all find those uniforms anyway?"

"Hanataro found them for us in one of his squad's store houses." Ishida answered. "They seem to be working, no one's tried to question us so far."

"Very good. Once we get to the top of the stairs, we will just have to the center of the citadel. Rukia should be in the tall white tower."

"And hopefully Ichigo will be there as well." Chad added, and as he finished talking they reached the top of the stairs and felt the pressure fall on them all. Hanataro fell to the ground, and Ganju fell to his knees. Ishida, Chad and Inoue all stumbled but stood tall. The power they felt consumed to senses.

"What the hell is this?" Ishida asked as he struggled for breath.

"It's one of the captains," Yoruichi explained, "Of the eleventh squad if I'm not mistaken."

"And Ichigo!" Chad exclaimed.

"Are you sure?" The cat asked.

"Yes, it's hard to tell since the captain's is so great, but I can definitely feel him."

"So can I," Inoue confirmed as Ishida nodded. "We have to go help him."

"No we must not!" Yoruichi ordered.

"Why the hell not?" Ishida demanded to know. "He's facing a captain we should be there for him."

"Were it any other captain I would agree," The cat explained, "But Kenpachi is a little different. He's a masochistic, battle loving madman. Whenever he fights he lowers his power to be as equal as possible with his opponent and drag the fights out. If we attack him as a group he will raise his power to match our groups and will over power anyone he attacks. Ichigo's only hope is to hold back and time his attack properly. If he catches Kenpachi off guard he might be able to escape."

The group went silent as they saw what she meant. The struggled with idea for a little while, they were so close to finally seeing Ichigo and now they had to ignore him for his own good. Yoruichi drove on, unwilling to let all her hard work to keep them apart be wasted now.

"Besides, look at Ganju and Hanataro, they can barely breathe even at this distance, if get any closer to that fight, they'll die from the pressure alone. Also, we can't waste this opportunity. We're so close to getting Rukia, and while those two are fighting no one will notice us as we advance, we can't allow all of Ichigo's hard work be wasted now!"

The rest of the group agreed, Chad picked up Ganju and Hanataro and together they all pushed on.

Skip

"This could be problematic." The instincts unwillingly admitted. "I really wanted to avoid this bastard."

"We can take him though right?" The first voice asked, "He doesn't seem much stronger than that Ikkaku guy."

"Because he's holding back. A lot back. Think he's at least as strong as Grimmjow, maybe stronger. "

"Damn, really? Well what do we do?"

"I need more power."

"Well obviously. How do we get that though?"

"Like this." The instincts responded and pushed to first voice off the building, and yelled at him as he fell. "I really didn't want to do this so soon, or while in Soul Society. But we're running out of options, so get that old bastard to help us out, or we're all going to die."

After the first voice fell into the water he turned back to the task at hand and said, "So this one eyed punk wants a fight aye? Well I'm more than happy to oblige him."

Meanwhile Kenpachi was getting tired of the awkward silence as he held his blade pointed at his foe. "Hey man are you going to do anything or stand there all day. If you want I can give you a freebie-"

Before he could finished the hollow leapt at him, and grabbed the captain by his face and pushed him out into the air. As he did, the hollow twisted in the air and threw the captain down off the building into the ground with a resounding crash. The captain looked up from his hole in the ground and watched as the hollowed roared and challenged him. All he could do was smile while his head shook and his nose bled.

"Yachiru?" He called to the world.

"Right here Ken-chan." The small pink haired lieutenant answered.

"Do me a favor and back off a bit." Kenpachi commanded as he stood up, "And make sure no one disturbs me till I'm done."

"Sure thing Ken. Just be sure to have some fun with this one."

"Hahahaha," Kenpachi laughed, "That won't be an issue this time." And with that he cut the building down.

The hollow jumped off the building as it fell and flew around to the opposite side, so that it blocked his view of Kenpachi as it descended. When it landed, the both charged into the still collapsing debris, trying to catch the other blind. They met in the middle and both reacted perfectly, Kenpachi swung a perfect strike as the hollow swung with his claws filled with hatred and energy. The blade and claws collided and the building shook from the impact. A rock fell between so they both fell back. The hollow circled the stone first and caught his foe with a quick kick knocking back three floors.

The hollow roared and followed up his kick with a punch at the air as his arm glowed white and a great grey mouth shot out at the captain. Kenpachi smiled as the jaws came flying at him, but he knocked them away with an almost casual flick of the wrist and charged the hollow. His foe tensed his arm and sent white energy flowing through the now petrified mouth causing dozens of smaller mouths exploded and attacked the captain from the side. None of the mouths could bit through the captain's skin though, and with a quick burst of golden energy the captain was free from their grasp and slashed the retreating hollow cutting him lightly across the chest. By the time the hollow regained its footing his wound had closed, Kenpachi smiled at his foe's resilience.

"So you're a regenerator on top of everything else eh? Boy this just keeps getting better and better." Kenpachi declared as he charged his foe again with a vertical slice. The hollow turned sideways to dodge, allowing the sword to slice through the ceiling behind him. He then lashed with his claws and caught Kenpachi across the shoulder and drew some blood. Kenpachi grabbed the hollow's head and then threw him through the wall and out of the building.

The hollow skidded across the ground and into the wall of another building as Kenpachi exploded out of the rubble with his sword raised for a devastating cut. The hollow flipped away from the attack, twisted in the air and round house kicked his foe in the face to send him flying back. Kenpachi drove his sword into the ground to slow himself down, and when he stopped the slashed the air and sent a wind blade flying at his enemy. The hollow batted it aside and threw another grey mouth. The captain sliced in half and leapt over the long snake to reach the hollow stabbing at him as he came down.

The hollow rolled out of the way and kicked Kenpachi in the side. After the blow landed, Kenpachi grabbed his foe's leg and locked him in place while he tried to slice it off. The hollow leapt towards Kenpachi, so the was now standing in the hold and snapped kicked the captain's head, stunning him, so that he let go. As the hollow fell back to the ground the captain slashed wildly and caught the hollow across the back as it leapt away.

As the wound closed up, three small grey mouths shot out from the wound and launched at the captain, but these had fangs instead of teeth. The captain cut one into pieces, batted the second aside as the third bit into his leg and drew some blood. The captain took its head off and smiled again.

"You sharpened their teeth, clever bastard." The hollow glared in response and the two charged again. The hollow struck at the captain's head, but Kenpachi caught the blow, pulled him forward and stabbed at his face. The hollow jerked his head to the side to dodge the blade and kneed the captain in the gut, as he punched his kidney's with his free hand. The captain pushed his foe back enough to kick him in the chest and send the hollow careening back into another building. The captain charged after his quarry, only to see his target jump out of the debris, off a wall and spin a kick at his head. Kenpachi caught the blow with his sword and drew a little blood from his foe's calf.

The hollow landed and clawed wildly at the captain's head, but the madman ducked from side to side dodging them all while backing up. Then Kenpachi slashed down at the hollow's head, making him jump to the side, the captain followed this up with a quick cut across at the hollow's gut, but his target ducked it and rolled under the captain's guard, he then did a handstand kick and knocked Kenpachi high into the air.

The captain steadied himself as the hollow righted himself and the two jumped and fell at the other. As the met in the middle they both sliced at the other. The hollow took a deep gash to the shoulder as he raked his foe's chest with both claws. Their speed carried them past each other, so Kenpachi fell to the ground and the hollow steadied himself in the air. They turned and fired their ranged attacks at each other, air blade on grey mouth. Both attack canceled each other, so the hollow charged the ground with a flying kick.

The captain blocked the kick with his sword, and the hollow grabbed the blade with his feet's talons, pulled himself over the sword and kicked the captain in the head. Kenpachi grabbed his foe's foot and dragged him to ground and then into the side of a building. As he did, he plunged his sword in to the hollow's gut. The hollow cried out in pain, but gritted through it, and plunged his claws into Kenpachi's side. The hollow growled as the captain laughed hysterically, turned the blade and slashed it out of his enemy's guts while the hollow fell back, his wounds vanishing as they went. The two paused for a moment glaring at each other.

"Damn it." The instincts thought as it did everything it could to hold their body together. "Hurry it up you damned annoying voice, I can't hold this bastard at bay for much longer." And then he charged again.

Skip

Under the waters of his soul, the voice could only think of one place to go. So he felt the currents of power in the water and made his way to the bottom and the great barred door that lay there. He opened the locks with ease and stepped inside to see the old man once more. The man was only, with a well weathered face and bad case of five o-clock shadow. He wore along black robe and floated in the water like it was waving in the breeze, and he also had an awesome pair of shades. Before the voice could speak the old man looked up and him, and froze him with his gaze.

"So you have come to me a last my king." The old man spoke in a heavy and slow voice. "A pity it is to see you like this."

"Says the man in chains at the bottom of a lake." The voice retorted, "Listen man, we're having one heck of a fight up there and if you don't help us out we're all screwed."

"None of that matters now my king. Here the outer world does not exist, it is only us."

"Fine let's talk about us. Will you help me?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I cannot bring myself to preserve you as you are. Death is preferable."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I call you my king, but in truth are no longer the king of this world. You once had the power to command my respect. You once had the power to shake the heavens and cut down the moon itself if you wanted to. You were once such a beautiful creature, worthy of my affections. But now you are nothing but his play thing."

"Listen man, I don't have a clue what you're talking about. What do I have to do to get your help?"

"Die." The old man finished and in a moment all the chains that bound him up shattered, and there was a sword in his hand. In flash the old man was on top of the voice trying to cut him down. The voice sonidoed out of the room and slammed the door behind him, but it exploded as the old man tore through it.

"Look at what you have done to this world. These tall buildings once so proud and grand are all but dead. They are overgrown with decay and buried in the water." The old man declared as he charged and slashed at the voice. The voice ducked and dodged and flew through the water trying to escape, but the old man dogged him constantly, and soon he was cornered.

"Even this water is a sign of your decline. Don't you know what this water is? This is your regrets, your despair, this is the sum of all that you despise about yourself. See how it consumes your world. You are better off dead, and you know it. This world is better off without you. The world beyond will be glad to see you gone. You have become an abomination against all things that have been made by God or men. And I am here to purge you."

The old man sliced at the voice who was stunned by what he had heard. Deep within him thousand of voice told him that it was all true. Thousand of voices told him that he didn't deserve to live, that it would've been better if he had never lived. That the world should forget about him. Then he remembered, the first voice to tell him that. He remembered that tall proud warrior who had come and taken everything from him. Who had told him that the black haired girl was better off without him and would be punished for ever meeting scum like him. More importantly, he remembered the pure rage he felt towards that man. And he remembered that as terrible as this world was, without that black haired girl was doomed.

"SO WHAT!" He screamed as he smashed the on rushing blade into a million pieces. "So what if this world is decaying? I don't need it, I can rebuild! So what if these waters are so high? I don't care what you say I regret NOTHING! All I have done I did for her! And I will do it all again and worse still to see her MINE!"

The old man glared at him and answered. "Deny it all you want, but the truth is the truth. You hate what you have become, as you should for you have become evil a force of destruction."

"The world needs destruction! Nothing is innocent. Nothing I have done was undeserved. She is the only victim in the story. I will destroy everything if it means saving her!"

"I will not sit by and see you destroy yourself! I will not see you become anymore of a monster!"

"You have no right!" The voice declared, and the old man was silenced. "This is not your world, IT IS MINE! These are not your powers, nor are they his: THEY ARE MINE! I will do with them as I please AND YOU WILL NOT STOP ME!"

As he spoke the waters around them were driven back. The old man and the voice stood in the midst of an expanding bubble, nothing could touch them. Nothing not even the voice's sorrow could stand in the presence of his wrath. Still the voice spoke.

"I alone am master of this place. I alone shall do what I want. I can unmake the buildings or see them restored as I see fit. I can drive these waters away. Now you can help me do it, or you can get out of my way. Either way I have a madman to stop and woman to rescue, So what do you say to that?"

"You think this world can be changed so easily?" The old man ridiculed. "Then show me. Face these regrets of yours make this water receded. Then I might see that you are fit for the throne."

"Is that all? Then bring it on."

"Foolish boy, You don't know what you're asking for."

Then the waters fell on him once more, and they brought absolute horror with them. The voice relived it all, in an instant and in absolute clarity. He felt the pain he had inflicted on others. Every cut he had made on an Death God, every bite he had taken out of a human soul. Every ounce of terror he had given to bystanders and wandering souls. He felt the sorrow of the lives he had stolen. The crushing loneliness of a lost soul. He felt the pain of their sudden deaths, the loss of their unfulfilled lives. He felt the despair of their lost dreams of the futures they would never have. Then at last he felt his own life.

He watched as his own foolishness led his mother to her death. He watched as his family struggled on to survive without her. He watched as his sister was held in the hands of a hollow and how there was nothing he could've done to rescue her. He watched as his mother's killer escaped him when he did have the power to kill him. He watched as his pride put his whole town at risk. And last of all he watched as they came to take her away. And he felt that horrible pounding driving rain washing his very existence away. He felt death.

"NO!" The voice screamed. "I AM NOT DEAD! I did not die. And I will not die now. The sorrow, this suffering. IT WILL BE WORTH IT! I WILL MAKE IT WORTH IT! I REGRET NOTHING!"

As he cried the waters swirled around him, soon he was standing at the base of a huge whirl pool. And then the water receded. All the pain and despair that he had ever felt, that the souls he had consume had ever felt poured into him, and the voice changed it all into rage. The water were all gone. The old man and voice were standing on the streets that were now as dry as a bone. Then the buildings exploded.

They did not burst or fall, and their glass walls did not break, but now they were filled with fire. Great golden flames ran through cracks from the voice's feet into the buildings lighting them up with red, blue and yellow flames. Mighty dancing tongues of fire the filled all the buildings and died the sky above them. The old man fell to his knees and wept at the sight of it.

"Never have I seen anything so beautiful my liege. Truly you are worthy to rule here. Forgive me for doubting you."

"So you will help me then?" The voice asked, as he calmed down.

"After this you do not need it" The old man answered. "I will come to you in the hour when you do till then take this rage of yours and light the world on fire."

The voice nodded and returned his instincts side, bringing his full power with him.

Skip

Kenpachi slashed at his foe and caught him across his the chest leaving a deep wound there. The hollow fell to its knees. This wound did not close up just like the last four wounds Kenpachi had made. The captain smiled to himself. This had been a great fight but it was just about done now. Soon he would have to kill this hollow.

"Damn man, Ikkaku picked a good death to have fallen at your hands." Kenpachi said as he held his blade ready for the next blow. "Still it is about time that we ended this."

"Heh, ha, ha, hahahahhahahhahahah!" The hollow suddenly cried out as he staggered to his feet. "Yeah... I think... it is"

The air shifted in an instant, and Kenpachi suddenly felt a massive spike in the hollow's power. The monster was glowing white, as deep black lines poured from his skin. Then those black lines began to dance around the hollows body, like flying snakes, bighting at his wounds and closing them up, and curling around his arms.

"What the he-" Kenpachi started but was interrupted by burst of sound as the hollow vanished and reappeared right in front of him in mid swing. The captain took a punch straight to the gut and was sent flying back for hundreds of feet. As he flew the hollow appeared right in front of kicked him sent him flying up into the air where he was intercepted again and sent smashing into the ground. The hollow released a grey mouth at the captain, but this one was large that the others, with sharp fangs and serpentine through the air at its target. It caught Kenpachi and swallowed him up in one bite.

A second a sword tour the mouths head and sliced it apart as the captain staggered out from the wreckage. He looked at the hollow which now simply stood in the air glaring at him. Yet still the captain smiled he even laughed a little.

"So what the hell are you waiting for?" The captain demanded to know.

"Name it." The hollow ordered. "Name your sword."

"Can't." Kenpachi answered silencing the hollow in one word. "I don't know it. Because I never needed to. People like you and me, we don't need any cheap little magic tricks to fight. But if you really want a good fight, I'll be happy to give one."

Kenpachi then reached up to his face and tore the black eye patch away from his left eye. The moment it left him it looked like a golden lightning bolt struck him from the heaven and his spiritual pressure increased tenfold. The hollow smiled. Then he attacked with everything he had, and Kenpachi caught that blow with everything he had. Every building around the two of them crumbled into dust as they resumed their dance.

Skip

Ishida was completely surprised about how easy it was to reach the prison tower. He would expected that a captain would be watching over it at the very least. But no only a pair of guards stood in their way, and Ishida was able to take them out at point blank range thanks to his stolen uniform.

The door to the tower had been locked but Hanataro had a key to unlock it. Rukia had been grateful to see them, and there was no sign that opening the tower had triggered any kind of alarm. So far it seemed that the only problem they would have was that Rukia and Ganju had a history together.

Apparently Rukia had killed Ganju's bother or something like that, and now she wanted to do the honorable thing and die by his hand. It didn't matter really. Ganju didn't have the stomach to go through with it, and Chad wouldn't have let them anyway. Ishida wasn't really paying attention to what was going on now. He was more interest in 'Ichigo' fight in the distance. Somehow the fight had gotten worse when Ichigo suddenly pulled a massive power boost out of his ass and now the two were fighting at a level that Ishida could barely comprehend much less match.

More than anything the power he was feeling now convinced Ishida that the man fighting out there was not the same man he had fought with back on earth. The power was not only greater, but much more sinister, it bordered on evil and oppressive. Ishida didn't know exactly what that crazy shop keeper had done to Ichigo but it couldn't have been good to produce a power like this. Still at this rate he may never find out exactly what had happened to Ichigo as they were likely to get out of here without ever meeting him.

"Whew. " Orihime sighed as she exited the tower behind them, "Glad that's finally over with."

"Have you all finally worked out Rukia's issues?" Ishida asked.

"Yeah. She's ready to go. Yoruichi just putting some spells on her so that she can move more freely in this vast pressure." Inoue explained as she gazed off into the distance with Ishida. "Hard to believe that Ichigo is really in the midst of all of that."

"You have no idea. Still, we would never have made it this far were it not for him."

"That's true. If those two weren't fighting each other I would've sensed you all hours ago." A new voice offered from across the bridge that connected the prison to the main citadel. Inoue and Ishida turned on a dime and felt their mouths turn to ash as two men in Captain cloaks approached them from across the bridge. One was a handsome man with a beautiful scarf wrapped around his neck and an elaborate head piece on his head. The other was a man with pure white hair and a pleasant look on his face.

"Crap." Ishida said as he drew his energy bow and stood in front of Inoue. Chad and the others came out of the tower when they heard him and froze at the sight of the captains approaching.

"Captain Kuchiki!" Hanataro exclaimed, "Captain Ukitake! What are you two doing here?"

"Hello there Hanataro," The white haired Ukitake answered, "We came here when Byakuya here sensed several sources of low unknown energy approaching the prison."

"I must ask though," Byakuya interjected. "What are you all doing here with my sister?"

"We're here to rescue Rukia!" Inoue declared.

"Why?"

"Because she's our friend and we want to take her home."

"How childish." Byakuya scoffed. "I am sorry, but I can't let you do that. My sister has been condemned to be executed and the law must be upheld."

"You heartless bastard." Chad chided.

"Be that as it may, I also can't let you all leave. You have broken the piece of Soul Society and you must be apprehended before any more damage can be done."

While they spoke Ishida leaned over to Yoruichi and whispered. "I don't suppose you could distract them while we escape?"

"If it was just Ukitake, maybe. But not Byakuya, and definitely not both of them."

"What are the chances we can win this fight?"

"Not good. Our only hope right now is that something really distracting happens." Yoruichi explained, just as Kenpachi exploded through the ceiling of nearby building, without a shirt on, with blood pouring from a dozen open wounds and while laughing like a madman.

"Captain Kenpachi? Is that you?" Ukitake gasped.

"Oh is that you Ukitake." Kenpachi lazily answered as his eyes scanned the area around him. "How are you doing? Are those the intruders? Perfect! Could you keep them all there for a few more minutes. I'll be finished here in a bit then I'll have time to fight them as well."

"Are you really still fighting?" Byakuya inquired in a high and mighty tone. "How much time does it take to kill one hollow. Though I can't expect a meat head barbarian like you to hold to the same standards of a real warrior."

At that moment a white hand ripped through the floor underneath Kenpachi and pulled him down into the building. A second later that was a large bang as golden and black light poured out of the building. Followed by a white shape blasting past them under the bridge, before jumping off another building and back into the fray. There were a few more explosions before finally Kenpachi flew out of the building over the other captains heads were he was intercepted by something that sent him flying into the top of the prison.

Kenpachi regained his footing on the top of the tower as he stared his foe who was hovering in the air over the two captains. Ishida's mouth fell open as he saw the hollow standing over them in its awful glory. They saw the sharp teeth set in its mask. The red marks on the mask and running down its arms and tail. They saw the great spikes on its back, with white and black fire radiating off of the monster. Then they heard it roar as it challenged Kenpachi to another clash. Kenpachi raised his sword and the monster charged him with black energy swirling around his hands.

"You idiot!" Byakuya cried. "You can't fight him he-"

Then they met and there was a simply awful explosion. All spiritual particles are equal. They have the same mass, if that makes any sense, they move at the same speed with the same force. When two particle collide they transfer their energy perfectly into each other and fly off in opposite direction. Thus any clash between two spiritual forces is not measured in the quality of their power, but by the size of their power. The greater pressure always wins, because the smaller pressure runs out of particles to block with before the greater pressure runs out of particles to attack with.

If two totally equal pressures meet they are both totally thrown away from the point of impact, creating a spiritual vacuum as both pressures fly off in opposite directions creating a large explosion that is harmless to the warriors but devastating to everything else around them. There is not really a good place for this to ever happen at, since it will destroy almost everything around the point of impact, but there is a very bad place for it happen at, anywhere around Destruction stone.

Not only does Destruction stone perfectly reflect all incoming spiritual energy, but if hit by a dense enough pressure it releases a new wave of its own twice as powerful as what initially hit it. This means that if two great forces, like a very power hollow and captain crash with equal power near a wall of Destruction stone there will not be just one shock wave but three. An initially shock wave will be released from their clash, followed by a second shock wave bouncing off the Destruction stone then a final third blast from the destruction stone itself.

Oddly enough the best place to be standing during these awful explosion is right next to the destruction stone itself. As the first shockwave passes over the destruction stone its often struck and disrupted by the second shockwave bouncing off the stone. Lessening the force of impact directly around the stone. Thus even though this explosion was enough to make two captain black out, Ishida, Inoue and Chad were almost completely unaffected by it.

Rukia, Ganju and Hanataro were still inside the tower when the explosion happened and thus weren't affected by it at all. Ishida and Inoue were just outside the door way and Inoue had the good sense to put her Sacred Tri-Shield up to protect them, so the worse that happened was that they fell to the ground as the bridge disintegrated from the blast. Chad was standing a few feet in front of them so he was thrown away from tower into a nearby building.

Ukitake and Byakuya were both blasted to the outer parts of the citadel were they briefly blacked out. Kenpachi was slightly above the epicenter of the blast and thus was harmlessly thrown up into the air by. He would return safely to the earth, about thirty minutes later. The hollow took the worst of the blast though, and was smashed down into the ground by it. And, due to the complex laws of force and vector physics, he landed almost right on top of Chad.

While his mask was broken.


End file.
